Or Something Like It
by Stella Wind
Summary: After Atem went though the door into the afterlife, Yuugi thought his life would be relatively normal again. However, he is once more given the Puzzle and Ryou finds the Ring. So much for normal.
1. Puzzles

**WARNINGS:** Contains yaoi, violence, OCs, and angst tinted by fluff. We also like Anzu.

YYY  
1. Puzzles  
YYY

Yuugi stared at the half-finished story on the computer screen. Oyama-sensei was right. It sucked (she hadn't actually used those words, but the sentiment was there). He skimmed down toward the last scene, wondering if there was anything in it worth keeping.

He stopped at the end (melodramatic, cliched, and all sorts of other things that were not good writing), and read.

_Putting the necklace into the final slot, he stared pleadingly at his love. The slab of stone shook slightly as it accepted the last key to open the door to the underworld._

_She gave him a brief look filled with equal sadness, but her face then hardened into cold determination. She was ready to do this. She was ready to die... for him, and for the rest of the world. He would have given anything to take her place. Why did it have to be Mara?_

_Hikaru opened his mouth, but Mara shook her head._

_"Don't say anything, love," she said quietly, "It'll only make this harder on both of us."_

_Well, why shouldn't he? She was leaving him! There wasn't any way back, Hikaru knew. She would be gone forever._

_Or until he died, which was practically the same thing. Maybe he would have been glad to be rid of her at the beginning, but not anymore. He loved Mara too much._

_She had to leave. She had known this the moment she had received the scroll for unlocking that dangerous, wild magic. It couldn't be left as it was, but to seal it again, she would have to die._

_Hikaru thought about covering his eyes, to hide the tears forming there, but he resolutely watched. Mara would not see that betrayal from him. He would watch her until she was gone._

_"Why?" he asked, "Why did it have to be you?"_

_She turned away from him, toward the gate that was creaking slowly open, "Because. There is no 'why', Hikaru. There's never a reason for anything like this."_

_Why did she have to be so damn sage-like? Why couldn't she at least show a little sadness or anger at the unfairness of it? Did she want to leave him?_

_"It's not fair," he said, wincing at how childish he sounded._

_"Life isn't fair, Hikaru. All I can hope for is that it'll be unfair in your favor a few times," she gave what could only be called a brave attempt at a smile._

_He smiled involuntarily, not finding any humor in her attempt, but only a great, deep sadness inside himself, one he could only try to hide._

_She seemed to think his was real enough, or maybe she was just being brave. With one last lingering look, she let her face slide into her battle expression, stern and unyielding. _

_Hikaru knew his heart was cracking._

_"No," his whimpered plea only heard by his own ears._

_Hikaru took a half step forward, reaching out as though he thought he could stop her. He wanted to chase her, catch her, hold her in his arms and kiss her, but most importantly, not let her go._

_She did not turn back._

_"No," this last plea was..._

This last plea was useless as well as moronic. Hikaru was just too...

Yuugi let his head thump onto the desk. Too much like him.

This was stirring up to many bad (not bad, but bitter) memories, not laying them to rest as he had prayed writing them would. He would have to find another story to write for Oyama. Besides, that meant he could get rid of this instead of fearing that one of his friends would stumble across it. Some how he doubted making the two lovers instead of twins would be enough to disguise who they really were.

The door banged open, but Yuugi ignored it, in favor of reading the last snatch, hoping that something in it would catch his eye and make the whole scene better.

Behind him, someone cleared their throat and Yuugi turned to look at his roommate.

Tanaka Kenichi was sporting new acid green braids and wearing a violently yellow skirt, but Yuugi did not blink. He was used to his roommate's eccentricities, and he had certainly seen much weirder things in his life than a drag queen or two.

"Lose a bet?" he asked, closing the laptop with half-finished story, "That wig clashes, and I know that's not your style."

Tanaka shrugged, "Kaikassu talked me into it. She said if people were going to stare at the man trying on skirts and wigs, I might as well give them something really worth staring at. What do you think?"

He struck a pose, arms spread as Yuugi looked him over.

"I've seen rock concerts that aren't that loud," Yuugi answered matter-of-factly.

"So I got the effect I was hoping for. By the way, Sonoda says that if we help her move, she'll make dinner."

"I still have too much to finish!" Yuugi sighed, "I've got to read chapter twelve for Yoshikata, and finish my story for Oyama, and review –"

"You have until Monday! It's Thursday. Live a little!"

Yuugi scowled, he did want a break from his work, but he had already completely blown off most of today...

_So why not blow off the rest?_ asked a voice in his mind which sounded quite a bit like Jonouchi.

His friend would definitely encourage this, especially if he had ever tasted Sonoda's cooking, but that wasn't necessarily a good reason to leave his work...

_And just how well are you working anyway?_ asked Jonouchi-in-his-head, _You know you don't do well when you start to think about him._

It was true. After five years, he should've be able to put his adventures with Mou Hitori no Boku – Atem, he reminded himself – behind him (or at least not dwell all of the time), but he still found himself thinking about his other self – the pharaoh – almost every time he let his mind wander. And it always hurt. He had learned to keep a tight rein on his thoughts, so as to not think about Atem.

His creative writing course was like hell, because to write, he had to let his mind wander a little, and it would invariably come back to Atem every time. He shook his head to rid himself of that train of thought and looked up at his roommate (and something kind of like best friend, weirdly enough).

"You're a bad influence, Tanaka," Yuugi grumbled as he stood up, knowing that he'd kick himself for it later.

"Hey, you're already into leather, and I've never put you in makeup or a skirt. I'd call that damn well behaved, thank you very little!"

Yuugi laughed. Tanaka just had that effect on people.

"Oh, and by the way, Yuugi," Tanaka said, reaching into his bag, "Before I forget... I got a present for you."

"Present? Why?"

"My aunt was cleaning out her attic. I got a necklace, a box, some rocks, and a puzzle that I managed to not even connect two pieces of before I realized I suck at it. So I thought, 'Mutou is good at puzzles and stuff, right?' So this is for you. Happy birthday, or whatever."

He tossed a bag at Yuugi, who caught it and opened it, revealing a box that had come open and spilling the pieces onto his lap. They glinted bright gold, and Yuugi felt his jaw drop. He turned the golden pieces over in his hands.

It couldn't possibly be! The Millennium Items were all gone! How could he have the Puzzle again?

He stared at the pieces for a while longer, and didn't even notice Tanaka's concerned look.

Was this even the real thing? It couldn't be. Could it? Why was it even here?

"Yuugi? Earth to Yuugi! Are you still with me, Mutou?" Tanaka waved a hand in front of Yuugi's face.

Yuugi jumped.

"Are you okay? You like you've seen a ghost."

Yuugi blinked at the puzzle again, then gently pulled out the box and put all the pieces back into it. Only when he had placed the box on his desk did he look up at his concerned friend and say, "I think I have."

"What are you talking about?"

Yuugi shook himself, "It's nothing. I've… I've seen that puzzle before. Come on, we should get to Sonoda's place before all the food is gone."

Tanaka gave him a strange look, but did not say anything else.

YYY

Sonoda-san's dinner was divine. Yuugi wasn't sure how she had made so many dishes on the stove at one time while moving in and quite honestly didn't care to ask. The moving was finished very quickly (Sonoda Wakika's cooking was famous within her circle of friends, so no fewer than eleven people had shown up to help her move into her new apartment) and the rest of the time was spent socializing. Tanaka had slipped out early for a date with his boyfriend, Sakuya Yoshiro, but he was snoring loudly in his bed by the time Yuugi returned, a little after midnight.

Coming in, he glanced at his desk and the bottom of his stomach dropped out as his breath caught. Somehow he had almost convinced himself that the puzzle had been a dream or some weird fantasy brought on by overeating.

His heartbeat picked up and he could suddenly hear nothing but it beating in his ears. Could it really be the puzzle? It was supposed to be gone.

Hesitantly, he reached out to take the top off – it seemed to be the same box – and touched a shining gold puzzle piece. It was warm, and seemed to leap into his fingers, too impossibly light for gold.

It felt like magic, something he had not felt since Atem had left.

_It really is the puzzle_, he thought dazedly.

Absently, his other hand brought out another piece, and experimentally tried it against the first piece.

It didn't fit.

Undaunted, he reached for another piece.

It was a long night.

YYY

Waking up on Friday morning was, as Tanaka so charmingly put it, a real bitch. Yuugi had fallen asleep at his desk as he worked on the Puzzle, and had an L-shaped indent on his cheek from sleeping on a puzzle piece. By the noon it would be gone, but catching Tanaka sniggering at him every time he looked at Yuugi's face was a little much.

"Like you can talk!" he finally growled at the young man, gesturing at his clothes.

"_I_ can make _this_ sexy. _You_ just look ridiculous," Tanaka retorted.

"By what definition of 'sexy' would that be?" Yuugi asked, still grimacing. He rubbed his cheek. It felt like a bruise was forming.

"Sakuya's," Tanaka replied.

Yuugi rolled his eyes. Those two were so completely in love with each other it was almost boring.

"Hey, be glad. I could've said 'your Mom.'"

He did have a point.

Yuugi looked wistfully at the puzzle as he left, but couldn't spare any time to work on it. Classes would have to take precedence. Besides, he seriously doubted that Atem really would come back, now that he was awake and his head was clear enough for him to think about it. Puzzle or no, Atem's soul had left this world. Yuugi needed to accept that if he wanted to move on.

Classes had taken too long, even when he got back that afternoon, it was still where he had left it the night before and the L-shaped piece still on the top glinted, as if mocking him.

"Sometimes I wonder if you're worth the trouble you cause," he muttered to the puzzle.

He knew it was without even looking into his heart.

He took the box of pieces and laid down on his bed, eight years worth of habit setting in. Had it really been seven years since he had solved it… had it been over five years since he had seen… Atem…

He mulled this over, thinking of how much had changed as he idly worked on the puzzle.

Kaiba hadn't changed of course, but Mokuba was in high school. He often missed classes as it was only a formality. Everyone knew that he was easily as smart as his brother. The latest game released by Kaiba Corp. had Mokuba's fingerprints all over. It looked like it would be fun, but no game had captured his imagination like the cards had.

Click. Click.

Anzu had gone off to New York to learn to dance professionally just a few months after the whole adventure had ended. She decided to skip her last year of high school in favor of her passion. Her parents had not been impressed. Yuugi had backed her with his winnings from tournaments. She had promised to pay him back when she was rich and famous. She had said it with a laugh, but Yuugi had seen her dance and honestly believed that it was a matter of time.

Click. Click.

The phone rang, nearly making him jump out of his skin. He dropped the puzzle pieces and sat up.

The phone rang twice more before Yuugi regained the presence of mind to look for it. It was, oddly enough, in the sink, on the drying rack. He hoped it wasn't ruined. …And wondered what the hell Tanaka had been doing.

He picked it up. He didn't recognize the number.

"Hello?"

"Do you have any idea how hard it is to track down a college and room number in Japan from Egypt?" asked a familiar voice, "And where were you when I tried to call yesterday?"

"Bakura?" Yuugi asked incredulously. He had not heard from his white haired friend in two years, and had wondered if he'd managed to drop off the planet.

"Yeah, it's me," Ryou affirmed over the phone with a nervous laugh.

Yuugi blinked. Two years, not a single call, not even a post card, and the bearer of the Sennen Ring calls the day after the puzzle had found its way back into his life?

Over the phone came the sound of a throat being cleared nervously.

"Something weird happened a couple days ago… I couldn't track down Isis or Malik, so I thought you'd be best. I… it doesn't make any sense but, I… I was out taking a tour of the Sphinx, 'cause I've lived here for two years and never done it…"

By now, Yuugi thought he knew what was coming, but he said, "Go on."

"Well, I wandered away from the tour group and the woman who kept leering at me and… well… that was sort of creepy." Here Ryou paused. "She was there with her grandson. But anyway—"

There was long silence, and Yuugi was about to speak again, but Ryou evidently caught his train of thought.

"I was looking around and such and I… I mean…"

Yuugi began to wonder if Egypt had done this to Ryou. He didn't remember him stuttering so much.

"I found the ring, Yuugi."

"I thought that might be it."

"You aren't surprised?"

"I would have been, but yesterday I got the puzzle back."

"And the… pharaoh?"

"I… I don't know. It's not solved. I'm working on it now – or at least I was before you called."

"Oh."

There was a long, thoroughly uncomfortable silence that stretched between them, broken only by the static on the phone.

"Have you seen anything of… the other Bakura?" Yuugi asked tentatively.

"No… and it makes me nervous, honestly." Ryou finished with a forced laugh. "I remember that it used to be he was up to something that I was not going to like when it was this quiet. I can't believe that he's not actually here… but I'm afraid to go looking for him."

The conversation after that became awkward and stilted as they caught up, until Ryou said, "I'm sorry, I have to go. They don't pay us university archaeologists much, and I don't even want to know what this has already cost me."

After more searching, Yuugi was able to return the phone to its cradle. He returned to the puzzle, sighing.

Hands once more going through motions of fitting the pieces together, he let his mind wander. If Ryou had not seen his other self, that probably meant he had not much hope of seeing Atem. He looked at the puzzle in his hands. This was pointless.

Another piece went into place with a soft click.

YYY

A/N: This is a cowritten project with DoomSquirrel (thank her, blame me), who is also posting this over on LiveJournal under her pen-name Urplesquirrel (http/ urple squirrel.live journal. co m/). This was her fic at first until we started talking... and then writing... and more writing.

Those who read my other fics will be pleased to know this has jump started those stories as well.


	2. And You Are?

Chapter Two: And You Are?

He had been saving this last piece, the on with the eye on it, despite knowing full well were it fit an hour after beginning the puzzle. It was some sense of nostalgia he supposed, remembering how much trouble he had with the piece the first time around. His hand curled around the gold. It would be finished soon.

And he prayed that he wasn't making a mistake as he slotted the finally piece in to the nearly complete puzzle with a trembling hand.

Nothing happened. Of course. He had been telling himself the whole time that it was stupid to get his hopes up, but at the same time, he'd really believed…

He dropped the Puzzle on his desk and put his head in his arms, feeling like he might just cry.

"Atem," he murmured, "I miss you. It's not fair."

He had suspicions from the moment he received the puzzle, but he had waved them away. Yes, it had been buried in an earthquake in Egypt, but magic must have its own rules. He had honestly wondered if this was a trap, but had prepared multiply contingency plans if it was. He had even planned who he would call first if his other self had been returned to the puzzle.

But it all came to naught. It wasn't that he'd really been expecting Atem to return… except that he had. Why would he have the puzzle, if Atem wasn't coming back?

He growled at the innocuous-looking gold, having to bite down the urge to throw it against the wall and break it apart again. He shook his head, took a deep breath, and reached into the desk drawer for something to put the puzzle on. After much rooting through his assorted crap, he finally found a ball of twine.

It would do for now. Tomorrow, he would see about finding a chain for it. He put the puzzle on the twine, and hung it in its proper place around his neck. Its weight still felt comforting, even if Atem was not there.

He looked at the clock. It was long past time for him to have gone to bed. He laid down, and fell asleep easily, now that he did not have the puzzle to think of solving.

YYY

The sand around his hand swirled and eddied, covering it, and then the wind whipped it away.

He suddenly had a feeling as though he was being watched; he reached around his neck and felt the comfortable weight of the puzzle.

He heard a soft clapping behind him, and turned to face it.

A young man was applauding.

He was attractive in quite the classic, ageless way. His skin was bronzed and his features fine. Something about him however made every hair on the back of Yuugi neck stand on end. The tilt of his head seemed faintly mocking with a cold smile.

"Three days, that was better then even I was expecting. I believe it took you eight years to solve the first time."

Yuugi shivered slightly, but he had long ago outgrown being unable to act when he was frightened. If Atem had taught him nothing else, that would have been enough.

"I was banking on at least a couple of weeks." His eyes were filled with dark amusement. "I shall have to step up my schedule."

"What schedule?" Yuugi asked warily.

"Well you see, it is a bit of a long story; suffice to say for now that certain persons imprisoned me wrongly. I'm looking for revenge. You have a very strong magic about you... the Sennen Puzzle choose you after all. I certainly rather have you as my ally than as... my enemy..."

"Uhh," Yuugi said, not finding any other action with in himself. Wasn't this around when Atem came to the front?

"I am here to ask for your help."

"With what?" Yuugi asked warily.

"I am planning a... coup? Well, that is not exactly it, but you have the basic idea. Your magic would be a wonderful asset to me. Of course, I will do something for you in return. In fact, I am willing to do something now. Call it a gesture of-goodwill."

Yuugi didn't think he wanted to owe this man anything, but he couldn't think of a tactful way to say so.

"You don't have to make up your mind immediately, of course. I will give you time to think it over. For now, keep in mind that this is only the beginning of what you will receive working for me."

He pointed behind Yuugi, "Over there. When you have decided, tell me. I hope you will join me."

He disappeared. Yuugi slowly turned in the direction where he had pointed.

Atem stood there, looking very confused, but regal in full court regalia, complete with all the gold Yuugi remembered from the memory world. Yuugi took an incredulous step toward him.

"Atem?"

Atem looked at him, and like the spring thaw his confusion melted into joy, "Aibou…"

"Atem!" Yuugi ran toward the pharaoh, "Atem!"

He reached out, his hand outstretched ready to touch him, to welcome Atem back, and found himself staring at the ceiling above his bed. He let his hand drop on to the bed. Of course, a dream, a wonderful and strange dream but a dream none the less. He sighed deeply.

"God dammit!" He exploded, sitting up.

He fell back into bed with a sigh.

"God dammit," he repeated. Though he normal didn't curse, he was upset enough

The clock was flashing green numbers at him. 6:55. Too late the go back to sleep, but still a good twenty minutes before his alarm would have woken him.

He looked over at the other twin bed as he got up. It was empty; Tanaka must have spent the night at Sakuya's again.

However… the room was not empty.

Atem stood in the middle of the room, his eyes wide and confused before they narrowed and darted around the room, then again settled on Yuugi.

Before Yuugi could react, the man from his dream appeared again, with an almost disappointing lack of fanfare.

"I trust this was a good choice?" he asked.

"What!" Yuugi almost barked, shocked.

"My goodwill gift. Didn't you wish every time you worked on the puzzle to see him again? I figured a little more than a glance wouldn't hurt my cause any."

Atem's head whipped around to look at the stranger, eyes widening again. "And you are?"

"I have many names, all across the world. You would recognize me as Apep, although I hear Apophis has become popular in recent centuries."

In a sudden flurry of movement, Atem grabbed the front of Apep's robes and slammed him into a wall with a painful, solid sounding thud.

"Mou Hitori no Boku, what are you doing?" Yuugi asked, more shocked at the sudden, violent display than he had been at Atem's appearance.

Atem glanced at him out of the corner of his eye, before his gaze snapped back to the man in front of him.

"You _will_ stay from Yuugi," Atem said in a commanding dark tone that sent an odd chill down Yuugi's spine.

"Well," Apep said as calmly as could be expected considering that he was staring at an enraged Atem, "How rude."

He grabbed Atem's wrist and pried his shirt from the pharaoh's grip. Upon freeing himself, he dusted off his clothing and looked over at Yuugi.

"I wonder about your taste, Yuugi, but it is you I need to win over, not him. My offer still stands."

He turned on his heel and vanished in a swirl of robes.

There was a long silence in which Atem and Yuugi merely stared at each other.

With what seemed to be a great deal of effort on Atem's part, he swallowed. "This isn't your room," he said with an accusatory note.

"Yeah," Yuugi gave a helpless shrug, his mind not caught up with his mouth. "College."

Atem cocked his head as if he didn't recognize the word. "College," he repeated, eyes scanning his former host. "Yuugi?"

"Yeah?" Yuugi tried not to wince at his hopelessly content and dream-like tone.

"How… did you know that man?" Atem's voice was surprisingly guarded and cold.

"I don't even know who he is," Yuugi protested.

"He seemed to know who you were perfectly well. How long has it been?"

"Since you left? You should know that." Yuugi felt distinctly cheated. Weren't they supposed to have a more joyous reunion?

"Time passes differently in Tuath, the afterlife. And you didn't answer my question."

"Why are you getting mad at me?" Yuugi demanded.

"Why are you avoiding the question?" Atem countered.

"Now you're avoiding mine. And it's been five years, so calm down. I haven't done anything to make you angry with me."

This was not what he had been hoping for. Atem had returned, and now they were immediately fighting? He couldn't remember when they had last fought when he was here.

"Five years—" Atem cut his sentence short, and did not look at Yuugi. Slowly he changed his stance, and straightened his back, becoming every inch the King of Games.

The King of Games ready for a fight.

"Why," he began coldly, and finally looked at Yuugi. "Am I here?"

At this, Yuugi had had enough. Atem looked every inch a Game King, but so was Yuugi, they had won that title together. He would _not_ be intimidated. He met Atem's glare with one equally powerful.

"How the _hell_ am I supposed to know that? Weird things have been happening to me, I have no explanation for any of them, and now suddenly you're back, and the first thing you do is act like I'm your enemy? What the hell did I do to deserve that?"

Atem was silent for a long moment before once more breaking eye contact with Yuugi, as if he could not bear the sight of him, faced shadowed he asked, "_How_ do I know you're not my enemy?"

Yuugi had been punched many times – he had been such a bully magnet, after all – but that hurt much, much worse.

He didn't notice Atem's regretful look as soon as the words had left his mouth.

Yuugi had a scathing retort on the tip of his tongue (the phrase "son-of-a-bitch" was in there, in a slightly more eloquent phrasing), but the door opened and a cheerful voice called:

"Yo! I brought Chinese!"

Tanaka bustled into the room and starting unloading the contents of a large paper bag onto the board and two concrete blocks that served as their coffee table.

"Are you feeling sick, Yuugi?" he asked without looking up, "I heard from Toruo that you missed Morishita's class."

Yuugi did not reply, but apparently Tanaka had not been looking for a answer, because he continued with, "I've got lemon chicken, shrimp stir-fry, and enough corn soup to choke a goat. I know that all we've got in the fridge is a hard-boiled egg and half a beer. Unless you-"

He stopped talking suddenly, looking very hard at the ground in front of him. He pointed slowly at Yuugi's shadow, then at Atem's, mouthing slowly, "One. Two."

He looked up at them, his eyes almost immediately riveted to Atem.

"Who the heck are you?" he asked.

He looked Atem over, "Is there some kind of cosplay thing going on I don't know about? That's an awesome outfit by the way. Is that real gold?"

Atem stared, before looking at Yuugi with a raised eyebrow.

Yuugi realized that Tanaka was still in drag, in his favorite yellow mini-skirt. At this point, he buried his head in his hands and took a brief moment of solace.

"What?" Tanaka asked. "And you still haven't answered my question, who are you?"

Yuugi wondered if it was good or bad that Tanaka made a very convincing woman. When he managed to bring himself to look again he decided that it was neither here nor there, Atem seemed suspicious of everyone.

If Atem had actually explained who Apep was, Yuugi would have understood.

Yuugi reached out tentatively with his mind, to talk to Atem. The link between them was as familiar as always, but it was old and disused. Atem looked at him a brief second and Yuugi had the distinct impression of receiving a mental shove.

_Well, if that's the way it's going to be,_ he thought acidly, and put up the strongest mental barrier he knew how.

Tanaka was not blind to this silent exchange. He gave Yuugi an inquisitive look. Yuugi glared at him. He knew it wasn't reasonable, his somewhat off-kilter friend had nothing to do with Atem shutting him out, but at the moment he didn't care.

Tanaka looked pursed his lips and said, "Well, does any one want to eat? And you still haven't told me your name." And with that he sat down on the table, pulled the lemon chicken into his lap and began to eat.

Suddenly, from out of nowhere a small green and brown form launched itself suddenly at Tanaka, landing on the young man's shoulder. Yuugi saw rows of sharp-looking teeth as it opened its mouth and bit Tanaka's neck, right on the curve where it met his shoulder.

Tanaka screamed, clawing at the thing that had attacked him. He stood, managing to knock all but one container of soup off the "table."

With a flurry of white cloth and clinking ornaments, Atem was beside him, and on the second attempt he grabbed the thing on Tanaka's neck and threw it against the wall.

It stood up, shakily.

Yuugi seized the chemistry textbook on top of a pile of dirty clothes, and smashed the tome over the thing's head. It fell to the ground with a pained, high-pitched moan.

Yuugi looked over at Tanaka. He had sunk to his knees by the table, a hand over his neck, which was bleeding badly. Yuugi raced to the bathroom and dragged the first aid kit out from under the sink. When he got back into the room, however, Tanaka was standing again. He was still bleeding, but it was not as bad as it had first looked.

Atem had grabbed the creature and held it by one of it spindly arms away from his body with a firm grip. "What are you?"

"Something, nothing, in pain?" the small creature whined. "Hungry?" it suggested.

Tanaka made undignified noise that is best written as "Ack."

"And you thought my friend would be a good snack?" Yuugi demanded.

"Master said not touch you, said nothin' 'bout the woman," it said slyly.

"Great, a compliment from a demon," Tanaka whispered, still staring.

"Humans," The thing made a weak attempt for freedom, but Atem tightened his grip, "Taste good."

"You were sent to watch Yuugi?" Atem asked, the dark tone from before returning.

"Let master know his decision. Master will be mad with me. Is master's fault. Not feed me."

"I'm _fucking_ bleeding," Tanaka bit out.

Yuugi turned to see him brandishing a spiked stiletto heel, with a steely look in his eyes, carefully reining in his fear.

"Let me hit him just _once_."

"Tanaka," Yuugi said gently, "Maybe you should sit down; you're hurt."

"This," he gestured at the bite, which still bled, "I've gotten worse, usually from Sakuya."

"I did not need to know that," Yuugi muttered in hopes that the old bantering between him and his roommate would calm both of them.

Tanaka gave him a dry smile. "Why do you think I'm such a fan of turtle-necks?"

"Didn't need to know _that_, either."

Atem gave them a confused look.

"I'll explain later," Yuugi said quickly, turning his attention back to the demon, "You were sent to watch me?"

"Tell master your decision," the demon repeated.

Yuugi's eyes narrowed in an angry glare reminiscent of Atem's. "Tell your master," he growled, "That there is no way I'm going to work for him! If he employs things like you, he obviously doesn't care who he hurts! I will never help someone like that!"

Atem gave him an odd look… Relief?

The demon gave him a wildly frightened look, and vanished in a wisp of smoke.

Yuugi stared at the spot where it had been for a moment, then turned to survey the rest of the situation.

Atem was staring at Tanaka, Tanaka was rummaging through the first aid kit. God, did that man ever slow down?

"Don't fucking tell me," Tanaka growled, "That we don't have any antiseptic."

"Yuugi, who is this woman?" Atem asked.

Tanaka looked up, his expression changing from one of pained frustration to contented amusement.

"Thank you!" he said happily, "Two people, and you definitely look smarter than that thing. I'm really pulling this off today!"

"What?" Atem asked. There seemed to be a lot of that word going around.

"This is my roommate, Tanaka Kenichi," Yuugi explained, "He's a man, he just enjoys dressing as a woman."

Tanaka extracted the antiseptic and a bandage, "I like fooling people. Two for two today."

"You have the strangest friends, Yuugi," Atem said, seeming a bit numb. Not many things managed to surprise him like that.

"Including _you_!" Yuugi shot back.

"What?"

"Is anybody going to explain to me who this guy is?" Tanaka murmured absently as he put a bandage on his neck.

YYY

Once again coauthored with urplesquirrel, who has cross-posted it on LiveJournal.


	3. Nothing New

Co-authored with the _extremely_ talented Urplesquirrel who has this cross-posted to her livejournal.

YYY

3. Nothing New

YYY

"Here," Yuugi said, handing Atem a stack of clothing.

"What's this?" he asked.

"Some different clothes. No offense, but you kind of stand out. And I doubt you'd want to wear anything in Tanaka's closet."

"Hey!" Tanaka protested, "Are you saying I have bad taste?"

"No, you have excellent taste. For a woman," Yuugi replied, not even bothering to look over.

"I do have men's clothing, too, you know."

"I've never seen it," Yuugi said truthfully.

Atem looked at the pile of clothing and the slight downward swoop of his eyebrow told Yuugi that something about it was still not right.

"What's wrong?" he asked, tired of Atem's attitude.

"Nothing, nothing," Atem quickly said.

"Fine, then pick your own clothes," Yuugi snapped. He'd had less then ten hours of sleep in the last three days and only three of them had been consecutive.

He did not notice Atem's worried glance.

He busied himself cleaning up the food and salvaging enough for a meal. His mouth was set in a thin firm line and his eyes narrowed. He gathered together the food furiously, not looking at Atem or Tanaka.

He was starting to wonder if maybe he had been too hasty in his earlier declaration that the puzzle was worth the trouble it caused.

Atem's mind was still completely shielded from him, so he was starting to doubt it. A lot could change in five years, but what had changed between them? Atem had never blocked him out before and it stung much more than he cared to admit.

As he swiped up the last of the spilled soup with a dirty towel stolen from a nearby pile, he noticed he was still in the clothes he had been wearing for the last three days, complete with stains and wrinkles.

He grimaced, and walked back over to the narrow closet that was standard for the dormitories.

He pulled some fresh clothes out of the closet, wondering if anyone else in the dorm had heard the racket. He hoped Atem would have the sense to change clothes before someone came to investigate.

Fresh clothes in hand, he locked himself in the bathroom to shower, brush his teeth, and take care of the other necessities of hygiene he had neglected over the past few days.

YYY

He took a guess that Yuugi's closet might contain clothing less objectionable to him then the ones he had been given.

He closed the door behind him on Tanaka's dismayed, "You're going to try and change in _there_?"

He could see the man's point. There was not very much room.

Still, he preferred the cramped quarters to the bathroom Yuugi was in. He tried their link, but felt only a hard wall and a little bitterness seeping through. He pulled in a long breath, held it for a moment, and then released it with a sigh.

Had he really made Yuugi that angry? Apparently, for that strong wall showed no signs of yielding.

He had often wondered what it would be like when he finally saw Yuugi again. He'd had many scenarios in his mind, all of them different, but _that_ had been nothing short of a disaster.

He would have to apologize, probably, a thought that didn't exactly thrill him. He had too much pride to easily swallow. Also, he had plenty of things to be worried about besides that.

The biggest one was of course Apep. Was that man even the same as the demon he knew? He must be, he couldn't imagine anyone would be brave enough (or stupid enough) to impersonate him.

And what did he want with Yuugi? The thought of that… that monster wanting to have anything to do with his Aibou sent chills down his spine.

Aibou. Partner. He bit back a rueful laugh at the thought. Yuugi had been acting like anything but his partner.

In the corner was a lump of cloth, sitting on the floor as though it had been shoved there very hastily. Atem picked it up and his lips curled up into a very catlike grin.

When he exited the closet, Tanaka's eyebrows shot up so far that they disappeared under his bangs.

"Wow," he said.

He looked Atem up and down, "You know, I tried to get Yuugi to wear that to a party once. He wouldn't do it."

Atem gave a rare chuckle, "I'd bet I can tell you exactly what he did."

Tanaka arched an eyebrow, "Oh?"

"First, he turned red, then, he sputtered incoherently, and finally he hid behind the closet door."

"Two for three. Finally, he threw a shoe at my head. I'm lucky he has bad aim."

Atem nodded absently and looked to the bathroom door. Yuugi was still in there, as the running water indicated, but before he could decide what course to take, there was a knock on the door.

Tanaka bit off a curse and shoved the medical paraphernalia into a pile and scattered papers over it.

"Come in," he said in a singsong tone.

"What part of 'I'll just drop this off and meet you at Nooshi at ten-thirty' involves leaving me waiting around for two and a half hours?" asked a very annoyed voice as a young man entered.

He caught sight of Atem and looked him up and down.

"Damn, Yuugi. That looks good on you."

Atem realized that this man didn't know he wasn't Yuugi. All things considered, this was probably a good thing.

"Er... Thanks."

"Yeah, funny story, that outfit," said Tanaka hastily, "It has to do with why I'm late."

"I'd be glad to hear it, but if we don't leave," he checked his watch, "About five minutes ago, they're going to sell our seats to other people."

"Got it. Let's run."

"By the way, Yuugi," the man paused at the door, "I'm serious when I say I've got a few girls you should meet. Wear that outfit, and they'll be falling all over you."

"Yoshiro, I know you think Yuugi needs a date, and I agree with you, but you're the one who just said we're going to be late."

"So I am. Seeya later, Yuugi," he said with a jovial wave.

Atem waved back weakly, wondering if Yuugi's reputation was about to become another point of contention between him and his former host.

YYY

The Ring was still there, lying on Ryou's chest as innocently as ever.

Which wasn't very innocently at all.

He let phone in his hands drop back into the cradle. He closed the laptop glad that he had been on searching for the number since he had found the ring.

It had answered no questions and only raised more.

Finally daring to glance at his watch he winced. In less then two hours he would be catching a boat.

At least there would be no donkey riding on this trip. During his two years in Egypt, he and the beastly creatures had come to an agreement of mutual hatred.

A movement across the room seized his attention, and for a second he saw a flash of white hair that disappeared as he turned. His breathing echoed harshly as he came up to the mirror. He must have seen his refection in it, though he felt it was impossible for him to mistaken himself for his other self now. For the longest time he had thought that his face would become more angular. Thought that the spirit had been a reflection of how he would look when he was older, but there was no resemblance other then the superficial white hair (though even that wasn't such a great resemblance anymore, his hair was now much longer, and he braided it to keep it out of the way when he was at a dig). His shoulders had become a broader as the last of puberty had left him, as well as a few more inches added to his overall height, but his face was much the same, still open and polite.

He put a hand to the mirror and felt cool, hard glass. No weird distortions, no double shadow behind him. He was here and alone. The mirror had played a trick on his eyes. It was not the first time he had thought he had seen his other self in the mirror. It had been three years or so since he had jumped ever time he saw his refection unexpectedly, but every once in a while he saw a glimpse was always only him.

He stared at the dusky pre-dawn light out the window and grunted. Maybe coffee would help him feel better. Or more likely a nap on the boat. Either way he still had to pack.

He crammed his stuff into the duffel bag, wondering how it seemed to have doubled in volume since he originally packed up. He hadn't bought _that_ many things from the trinket salesmen. Like he'd told Yuugi, he wasn't paid much.

Of course, he had other money to work with, but he already felt awkward maintaining his current standard of living when so many of the people around him were below the poverty line. He didn't need to be rich like he was in Japan. Despite his father's insistence to at least rent nearer the museum in the tourist quarters, he was fine in the small house he shared. He was also fine with the small salary that the university and museum paid, he was already (comparatively) rolling in money.

It took longer to stow away his laptop and wind up the various cords. It was one of his few luxuries, but necessary for much of the work he did for the museum, if nothing else as a cover. Saying he could read, write and translate Ancient Egyptian as well as instantly know what god was represented there despite the convoluted and complex system of religious beliefs because of a possessive spirit that was supposedly him in a past life would not go over well.

After one last go over of the room, double-checking that nothing had been forgotten he took his bags and left for the docks to see if the boat was there yet.

It was, and furthermore, just about ready to go. He had to run to get on. He would have been there with more time, but for the eight trinket salesmen who held him up. His fault for dressing like a tourist, he supposed.

He settled himself on the boat, marveling at the tenacity of those people. It was not even eight am yet. He stretched out on the more or less comfortable seat, and tried to sleep, but the rocking of the boat made him feel as if he were about to fall out of his seat, so the best he could do was doze.

After being startled fully awake by yet another motorboat he settled for staring at the Nile itself, wondering what it was like before. His other half had shown him a few images and memories, but Ryou thought it was unlikely that it did it justice.

He wondered what it would have been like at the full flood, before the Aswan Dam had been built. Idly he wondered if his other self would have taken offense to that dam, and suddenly had a very funny mental image of him using shadow magic explosives on the thing.

He openly laughed when he thought that the Pharaoh might even help rid the river of the monstrosity. He ignored the strange looks, well used to them and settled back into a doze.

It was late afternoon when he was awoken by the slowing of the boat, but it was another half hour before they docked.

One thing that Ryou did not like about the desert was the temperature changes. Due to the swing of the temperatures from before dawn to mid-day, he was stuck with a pile of clothes he had used as layers, and no where to stow them as well as a too-heavy, vastly overstuffed duffel bag.

Grabbing his other luggage, he began to make his way to the house he shared with three other students, all of whom where still out on the dig in Dahshur. At least he could sleep in peace.

He unlocked his door and stepped inside. Dropping his extra layers and duffel bag in the foyer, he went upstairs. He could probably manage a day or so of sleep before having to get back to work.

It took him some time to become comfortable in his own bed, after spending a week in hotel rooms.

However, it took even a longer time to settle his thoughts. If he had been more of the moping sort, he thought he would be lamenting the reappearance of the ring. As it was, he felt resigned, but amused.

It wasn't that he missed his other self; just that life was a lot more interesting when he was around. And his other also knew how to deal with the calls from yakuza he had been getting for months after those three days he had taken over.

He wasn't entirely sure why there was reason for him to be getting calls from the yakuza. All he knew was that there was some encounter involving a chicken, lamp, and temple with a dash of pick pocketing.

Hmm, that might be another reason to add to his growing list of reasons that having him back was not a bad thing no matter what Yuugi-tachi might say.

Feeling mostly contented with life, Ryou drifted to sleep.

YYY

Ryou's climb back into to consciousness was cut short by the feeling a presence looming over him.

Blurry, but alert, his eyes snapped open to see a bizarre sight.

The first things he saw were the eyes, crimson and as completely unlike Yuugi's other side as could be, and the scar running over one, with two more smaller scars intersecting it. After that however, everything hit him in a rush. White hair, a red vest like garment that vaguely reminded him of one he had seen in a tomb painting, lots of gold, tanned skin, a lot more gold, and an amused smirk.

With what he would later claim was a very manly shriek, he quickly backed up to the headboard. And then fell off the bed.

"I was wondering if you were ever going to wake up. I've been sitting here for hours."

At this familiar features finally swan into focus. "You?" he managed to croak in amazement.

"Yes, me again," he said quite dryly.

"Oh." It took a few moments for Ryou to process this. Well, looked like he was back. Not much surprise to that. His other side was like a cockroach, to put it most accurately.

The sound of cards being shuffled reached his ears.

Ryou warily watched his other self as he called work with a personal emergency, knowing that he would more likely take it as a complement then anything.

"You look different," he said after he finally hung up.

"I suppose I do. This," he spread his arms "Was precisely what I looked like in Egypt. You never saw me like this because you didn't go to the memory world."

This was most certainly his other self, already trying to break up his friendship with the others. He understood quiet well why he had not okayed to go.

"I was called the King of Thieves there."

Ryou nodded as a thought occurred to him. He poked the so-called King of Thieves in the chest.

Solid.

He wondered faintly why this seemed more surprising than anything else the past three days, as he managed to awkwardly sit back on the bed. At least this meant that he would hopefully have an alibi if the police ever came knocking, as unlikely as it was.

"Should I even want to know how you're…?" Ryou trailed off, trying to find the right phrase. He hated when his words stopped working.

"Corporeal?" the now solid spirit interrupted, "Probably not, but I don't know either." He stretched back on the bed with a lazy grin, the kind that usually indicated to Ryou that some blood had been shed. Specifically, blood of someone that he did not like.

He raised an eyebrow at the tomb robber, "How can you not know?"

"I don't," he said in a very firm tone, that Ryou knew not to cross.

"Oh," However, that did not stem the flow of questions. "How did you get back here?"

"I left a few… contingency plans, and this one was the easiest to reach from…"

Ryou sat as he watched the other stare into space as if remembering something, lost in a thought or perhaps a memory. "Oh," Ryou replied, but he still had quite a few questions, so he switched to what was hopefully a safer topic, "How did you get back here?"

"I have a suspicion."

Ryou felt a deep feeling of foreboding at the soft tone those words took on, as well as the finality of the words. So much for a safer topic.

"But ultimately, I believe that I'm an unexpected benefactor. My escape has gone unnoticed for now."

Escaped... unnoticed... he believed! Only believed, which to Ryou suggested some type of uncertainty. Who the hell did he piss off last lifetime to get this much bad karma? Oh. Yeah, that little detail that supposedly he was his bad karma reincarnated, and that was making his head hurt to even think about. But for any uncertainty to be shown by the thief over his skill was incredibly out of character, and upsetting.

"We've got nothing to eat in here."

"No," Ryou confirmed now utterly resigned to dealing with him again, praying for a mostly still intact kitchen as he shuffled down the hallway. Life was going to be interesting again. _Old Chinese curse,_ he thought ruefully, as he investigated the cabinets.

Yuugi was so lucky to be able to stand his other side.

YYY

Yuugi shut the medicine cabinet rather harder than was strictly necessary, especially since the mirror was already cracked. He felt better after a shower, but he was still angry. Nothing was going right. He had never fought with Atem before, but now, he wanted nothing more than to smack the man. How he could he do that? Didn't he understand that, come hell and high water, he could trust Yuugi?

_How do I know you aren't my enemy?_

That still hurt. What the hell was wrong with him? Even if he'd thought that, he wouldn't have ever said it before. It made Yuugi so angry that he almost wondered about changing his mind and working for that man who Atem had seemed to hate so much. Then he remembered the cold smile and the creature that had attacked Tanaka and shivered. No. As angry as he was, he would need to find some other way of dealing with it.

He glanced at himself in the mirror, smoothed his bangs out of his face (a futile gesture, they fell right back into place) and left the bathroom.

Atem was perched cautiously on a bed and had been idly working a rubix cube, but hastily put it down when Yuugi had entered the room.

Yuugi stared at him a long moment deciding that it was entirely unlikely for him to apologize and that there was no point in waiting around for one.

Although if dared even _think_ that Yuugi was his enemy now, he would show him just how much he had changed.

Yes, he had changed, Yuugi decided resolutely as he sat down on the 'table' and looked at Atem. Perhaps that may have confused Atem, but it had been five years. He should be more worried if he hadn't.

Atem was just being stupid, Yuugi ultimately concluded. He would have to deal with the fact things change.

Several long moments passed between them as they waited for the other to make the first move. Yuugi knew that for all of Atem's knowledge of tactics and magic, as well as self-righteous anger, he could easily the be more patient of the two.

At last Yuugi's stubbornness paid off when Atem fidgeted. A moment later he broke and began to speak.

"Yuugi… That thing… Apep is dangerous, very much so."

Yuugi stared flatly at him, but let him continue to speak. He would at least listen. After all, this was Atem being tactful, and it was a rare occurrence.

"There were stories about him. Myths and legends to tell at night while behind safe doors or to whisper at noon in the street. They were old, and quite often inconsistent, but no one dared to point that out or disbelieve them. There was a reason that there are so many charms against the dark and such." Atem paused, before continuing a bit more softly. "I know a few. I don't know why he's interested in you, but I can assure you it's nothing good. I… Whatever you do, don't trust him."

"I didn't," Yuugi answered in clipped tones.

"I should have known you wouldn't. But I just… he seemed to know exactly who you were, and I couldn't believe that you might be his ally…" he took a deep breath, and straightened his shoulders, "I apologize for my previous behavior. You didn't deserve that."

He put on the elegant air of the pharaoh as he said the last sentence, and he didn't seem in the least bit sorry for his words. Yuugi bristled, but let it go. Atem did not sacrifice his dignity easily. That was most likely the best he could expect.

"No, I didn't," he agreed, carefully _not_ accepting the apology, "I can't believe you would say something like that to me. You should know I'm your friend, no matter what."

"I know," Atem replied, his face carefully blank.

"You sure haven't been acting like it!" Yuugi snapped, angry again.

"I apologized, what more do you want?" Atem snapped back.

"Mean it!"

It wasn't an easy thing, to catch the King of Games off guard, but Yuugi managed it with that. Atem's throat and mouth worked silently as he tried to recover from the verbal blow. Yuugi felt a twinge of vindictive pleasure, but almost immediately felt guilty. He didn't want to be fighting with Atem, but somehow it seemed like that was all that was coming out.

"I'm sorry."

It was not Atem that said it, but rather Yuugi. A small part of him, the one that was still angry, violently rebelled against it. Why was he the one apologizing when he had done nothing wrong? But they needed to patch things up, and if he waited for Atem to make the first move, they would only get worse.

"I… I don't want to be fighting with you, but it seems like that's all we've done since you got back. I'm sorry."

Again, he had succeeded in throwing Atem off balance, "Aibou… I-"

Yuugi smiled softly at the familiar name. "That's right. We're partners. Friends. We shouldn't fight like this."

"That sounds more like the Yuugi I remember."

Yuugi looked up, confused. Atem smiled wanly.

"You're trying to placate me, rather than meet me head-on. You never used to do that when I got into a temper. It's been… strange, dealing with you. You've changed so much."

"It's been five years. Did you really expect me to be the same?"

"No. Well, yes, in a way. It's one thing to know," he tapped his forehead, "that you wouldn't be the same person you used to be, and it's another thing entirely to _know_ it." He placed his hand over his heart.

"I guess that's true. I… I think maybe I just expected that it would go back to how it was before you left."

"I… I don't want to fight with you anymore, Aibou."

That wasn't almost an apology, which was what Yuugi had wanted, but the words somehow still made his heart pound. It felt as though something very important was in those words, but he didn't quite know what. It was frustrating, but still…

"I _am_ glad to see you again," he said quietly, "I missed you."

"And I you."

YYY


	4. Fight or Flight

Once again a reminder this is cowritten with UrpleSquirrel. You can also find it at her LJ ( http/ urple squirrel. li vejournal. com/).

* * *

Chapter Four: Fight or Flight

* * *

The first order of business was obviously to find something vaguely caffeinated for Ryou to function rationally. It was a new habit that at first seemed extremely odd for Ryou to have picked up before Bakura was flatly informed that it was something quite necessary for him to function now a days. And while instant coffee was a crime against nature and god, it was quick, and there was plenty of it.

The chipped mug full of steaming coffee was decimated, and it was on the second one that Ryou finally managed to calm his nerves enough for his hand to not shake when he picked up the mug. Wrapping his hands around the pottery, he felt the heat seep into his hands.

"Five years."

Ryou sighed. "Yeah."

"So...?" Bakura pinned him with a look, before his eyes slid away.

"Well, father was invited here to Ca iro, here, for a temporary teaching position about eight months after the Items were lost in the tomb. It caved in you know, after the Pharaoh went to the afterlife." Ryou stumbled over his words in a rush.

"Really now?" The thief's interest was peaked.

"It was a side affect of... I really didn't get it either," Ryou admitted, grinning.

"It was voluntary!"

Ryou could only nod dubiously. "He left for the afterlife after a duel some sort of ritual duel that he had to lose. There was a doorway, he went through it willingly."

His other side could only shake his head, laughing silently, snickering, with a vaguely triumphal underscore.

"Through a series of incidents and accidents, it was apparent that I was very knowledgeable on Egyptology. Took a few classes, and jumped though some hoops and suddenly I was doing work-study and getting a degree."

A rueful grin and a smirk were exchanged.

But Ryou was not going to tell of how he was a preferred student to come on a dig. He could always find what was hidden or forgotten. Half shared memories had become very useful to him, and in truth, he treasured them more then many of his own. But he was not going to tell of the four times he had to make use of them and his unwieldy grasp of shadow magic to dispel older spell traps in the tombs that had been triggered.

"The others?"

"I really hadn't--" Ryou knew that to tell him he had not bothered to keep in contact, but for a phone call the day before (he hoped he had not slept longer), would invite ridicule at the very lest. "Yuugi's at this weird college in Japan. The Kaiba brothers are just about the same. Jounochi is going to college too, at Mai's insistence. I think they're dating. Honda's working at an auto shop, and moonlighting as a test driver. Yeah..."

"Who else lives here?"

"Quite a few others, but for the next week, it's just me. Digs or family in their cases. Father is out of town too."

His other side was thinking, his eyes were half lidded.

"Where were you?" Ryou finally asked.

"Elsewhere," Bakura said sharply.

"Another world?" Were the other Items there?

"Something like that."

Subject closed.

The deck has the exact same cards." Bakura remarked.

"I don't play much." Ryou picked at the chip on the coffee mug.

"How boring. What on earth do you do for fun?"

"Internet RPGs mostly."

"So in other words, you're now a reclusive geek."

"I am not."

"Really? Then what do you do for fun, date?"

Ryou bristled at the incredulous tone the words were said in. "There is no one to date. Do you even know what the dominant religion here is? Having a strange, unnatural _natural_ hair already sent most of the neighbors clucking and muttering."

"Surely--"

The surreal quality of discussing his current lack of dating with him wore off, and Ryou recognized it as a distraction technique.

"Surely," Ryou cut in, "There must be something that you have ever so conveniently forgotten to tell me."

"About my recent whereabouts? Of course, but you and I both know that I do not tell my secrets."

Oh yes, he knew that very well. It was one of the few things about the thief he did know well. For all that they'd shared a body, he still knew very little about the spirit.

One thing he did know, however, was that he had very good instincts, so when the thief suddenly stood, knocking the chair he had been sitting in to the ground, one hand producing a knife out of no where, and the other grabbing the deck of Duel Monsters cards, Ryou knew there was something happening, though he hadn't sensed it.

Of course, Ryou had never been really adept at feeling magic. He never got those truly bad forbidding feelings that Yuugi used to have before something bad happened. He only knew something of how to use and even then there were days he wonder how he had managed not to accidentally summon a demon.

However, his other half was another story as normal, and it was him Ryou had always relied on when it came to the mystical.

He followed the path of the other's eyes to see shadows twisting towards the same spot, thinning out and lengthening before disagreeing back into the original positions in an instant.

The lighting on the other side of the room changed for a brief second. No signaling flash, no sudden change but for the shifting of the shadows into another position before again, they snapped back to were the light dictated.

In the center of the brief distortion of light stood a loose group.

Several small, misshapen creatures crouched. They were small things with bones in places they shouldn't be. The where not ugly, but different enough for the norm so would say the where. Each was a little different, like several sculptors had been given a set guidelines, but had only read them half way through. They were each terrible but hauntingly beautiful n there own way. Or at least Ryou thought as much; his taste in cards was remarkable similarly to his other side's.

Off to the side of the group stood a man, with a wild feral look in his eyes as he gazed at them.

Ryou moved quickly behind his other half as he came in front of him, between him and them, as if it was a well-practiced move, rehearsed dozens of time.

"Go back and tell your master that he left the hole open," the thief king said as he slouched into a more relaxed pose, and stabbed a piece of fruit with his knife. "Far be it for me to not take such a gift. If he truly wishes to deal with me, he should come and deal with me, not send lackeys."

"We were told," spoke one off the taller more spindly creatures, not the human as Ryou had thought at first, with skin more suited to a watery environs, webbed hands and two sets of eyelids, one translucent, "To bring you back by any means, so he may deal with you in person."

"I see no need to go with, he has nothing that I want."

"He does but you haven't seen it yet. He always has something."

"Not for me."

The creature stared at him before nodding and turning to its brethren. It nodded.

They sprang.

Ryou was instantly pressing himself against his other side and then backed up a step not wanting to hamper him. Having different bodies did have more then one advantage, but unfortunately that Ryou's defensive skills were not one.

Grayish liquid splattered both of them as the knife slid under the arm of one creature. Ryou assumed it was ichor or blood.

To the side of the thief Ryou saw another trying to circle around, perhaps to attack face him face on or his other half from the side. His mug of coffee provided a brief moment after being thrown for him to seize a chair and attempt to fend it off.

A monster from a card was called into existence and Ryou felt the strange disconnect that he always did when the shadow realm came into play, like the world had been inverted.

He recognized the card's skeletal build and sword as one of the demise set. They were soldiers of the deck, used for long slogs and stalemate duels that were won by only the skin of the teeth.

The monster was fast and efficient quickly cutting down all but one of the creatures who disappeared and the human.

Ryou had almost forgotten about the single human. Enough that he had not noticed him summoning a monster in response until it to was enticed to cross realms. He didn't know what the monster was, but it wasn't the first time. He had long ago suspected that Pegasus had not made all the cards he could have.

The monster came towards him. Ryou ducked out of the way -- though it looked human, it had almost a full three feet on him in height. He wasn't stupid, he couldn't hope to fight that thing, so instead he did his best to put the monster Bakura had summoned between them.

The jump he had to make to get away from the first haphazard swing was worthy of an action anime, in his totally nonbiased opinion. Trekking up and down staircases into and out of tombs had kept him surprisingly limber. It was hardly easy though.

Was it just him, or did it seem like a disproportionate number of the creatures were coming his way?

There was no time to wonder about it, though. He seized a broken table leg and hit the thing nearest him over the head.

It did not faze the creature, and he dodged the wild grab it made at him. He shuffled sideways, once more trying to get behind the monster. Another creature charged him, its mouth open, reveling a parchment like tongue that rolled out easily, dangly limply. This one seemed content to merely charge him, back off when hit, but showing no sign of damage either.

Another spindly creature, with wings that seemed impossibly translucent, but too small to hold its weight, was darting to his side, a knife gripped loosely in one hand. Ryou lashed out, ripping one of the membranous wings straight off its back. Its scream was silent.

Ryou had only a second to let the look of anguish sear itself into his thoughts, before another began to attack him.

He kicked, catching it in the jaw. He felt the bone crunch under his foot, and briefly sent up a prayer that he wouldn't ever feel that again. It was just too creepy.

He thrust the splintered end of the chair leg into the eye of a dog-like beast, but suddenly found himself being lifted into the air. The monster had gotten behind him, and it held his arms to his sides easily, and so tightly it was painful. If it squeezed any harder, he knew that his ribs would crack.

He hung limply like a doll, his legs dangling down. He wondered if his ribs did crack, if he would hear that sound again, but louder and more final. He couldn't move, and tensing up brought a gasp of pain.

The fight around them slowly stilled as it became clear that he had been taken hostage and, and the others began to circle around them. One bared its teeth at the monster whose deadlock he was in, before tensing again to spring at Bakura.

A sharp rough sound vibrating behind him, stopped the creature, and it scurried back into the group, attempting to loose itself in the small milling.

"Human. I have him," the creature rasped, its voice oddly crystalline.

"And?" Bakura retorted, his eye gleaming beneath bloody hair.

"We will kill him if you attack," it said. In response to this, the monster holding Ryou raised the wicked-looking knife it held in its other hand and touched it to his throat. Chills shot down Ryou's spine.

_I'm going to die,_ he thought. The thief didn't share his body anymore, and had no reason at all to protect him. He would have swallowed, but he was too scared to move.

"Go ahead," Bakura said, "Why would I care? I don't even like him."

Ryou whimpered. Though that was exactly what he had expected, dying was not on the list of things he wanted to do. He found himself hoping, even though he had none, that Bakura had a plan of some sort to get him out of this.

"Do you know what that blade is, O King of Thieves?" asked the fish-thing mockingly, "It is a magic knife, the only one that can cut souls as easily as flesh."

Ryou could see it from the corner of his eye. It had no blood-red jewels or darkly gleaming sliver, but it was a metal of interminable nature, so dark, with only the edge flashing. It was hooked and he wondered if it hurt going in as much it looked to.

He would rather be crushed, he decided.

He struggled throwing all of his weight to one side an then the other, rocking the fish-beast. Just a little more and they might topple over. The pressure around his ribs increased ten-fold, and his breath was forced out. He was left gasping wetly and weakly, unable to breath.

He felt the knife against his throat and held utterly still.

"A simple nick is all it would take to mark him. After that I could always find him. A slash..."

Ryou felt the cool edge ghost over his throat to the other side.

"And his soul would be gone, forever parted from yours. No hope of recantation into one, or finding peace," He felt the beast shift, behind, maneuvering him into yet a more vulnerable position. "Like him or not, human, he's got half of your soul, and I doubt you want that destroyed. You can still feel that pain."

Bakura raised his hands, palms outward, and dropped the knife he held, "You are right about that," he said calmly, "Let him go, I won't fight you."

Ryou stared at his other half incredulously. Had he suddenly been transported into a parallel dimension beyond the shadow realm where his yami acted like a rational human being? Or cared about him? Even for a parallel dimension, that was just too weird.

Fortunately, the monster holding him (or whatever was controlling it), did not know how out of character this was for the thief, and dropped the blade away from Ryou's neck. He did not let go, but his grip loosened enough that Ryou could again breathe comfortably.

"You see?" said the creature that had spoken before, looking a little worse for wear with several deep cuts in its arms and the webbing between two of its fingers torn, but still triumphant, "There is always something."

"I'm surprised you figured out that he has half of my soul," said Bakura almost amicably, "And here I thought it was my best kept secret."

Only Ryou could have recognized the tone in his voice. It set off loud warning bells and alarm sirens within his mind, and the muscles in his legs tightened, ready to move at the first opportunity.

"There are advantages to being his general. He shares important secrets with me." The creature looked quite proud of itself.

"Yes, well," said Bakura, and suddenly everything happened too fast for Ryou to follow. He was yanked away from the monster's grip, and he stumbled into the wall. When he managed to get another look, he saw that Bakura had stabbed the creature up through the neck. The other end to the blade was sticking out through its eye.

"He should have told you the things that aren't secrets," Bakura said to the now-corpse, "I always lie."

* * *

It was when Yuugi looked down at his notes; he realized just how much attention he was giving the lecture. They were a tangled scribbled mess of lines and unintelligible words, not following the lines on the paper or logic. Quickly truing over his notebook to the next page, he renewed his attention on the slides the being shown, carefully taking down the number and title.

He waited for the professor to finish his last minute interjection on the last slide.

Atem was back in the dorm room, probable doing something. Yuugi only hoped that it wasn't a shadow game. He could walk around campus, Yuugi supposed.

"Mutou, will you stop fidgeting?" the girl sitting next to him hissed, "I don't care if you can't focus, but you're really distracting me!"

"Sorry, Kimura-san," Yuugi said quietly, but he wasn't really sorry at all. He didn't like Kimura much.

He'd like to see _her_ focus after the kinds of thing that had happened to him this morning. And he'd thought just remembering Atem had been distracting. This was like hell. He wanted to run out of this stupid room and these proofs he cared nothing about and go back to talk to Atem again.

The image of shoving his book in his bag, and just leaving tantalized him and he completely missed the next three slides, daydreaming about going back to the dorm room and Atem. They could got to the arcade and play videos games, or he was sure that Kaiba would love to duel him again. Maybe he should call up Jounochi and if he wanted to play as well.

"For the love of my grades, Mutou, sit still," Kimura whispered harshly.

Yuugi glared at her, but she was once more firmly fixated on the professor's words. Sighing soundlessly, he glanced at the clock. Twenty more minutes before class ended.

Could he make it that long without going insane? Twenty minutes, sure, but he had Oyama's class after this, which was another two hours.

He blanched, suddenly remembering that he had not done any work at all on his story since Thursday. He paled further as he strained to remember whether or not he had left it up on the computer screen. He was pretty sure he'd closed it, but he couldn't remember for sure, and he rarely turned his computer off.

_Oh, dear God,_ he thought, panicking, _What if Atem reads that?_

He would just have to die of humiliation.

"Mutou, what is your issue? Could you just still and pretend that you're paying attention while trying not to fall asleep like the rest?" Kimura pleaded.

Maybe Kimura would kill him, and he wouldn't have to even bother thinking about it. Maybe Atem wouldn't look at it. He was fairly sure he remembered closing it when he had printed it off this morning. He must have.

And what of the hard copies lying around the room? The other drafts?

Kimura's hand on his shoulder took him by surprise and he nearly yelled when she squeezed it. "Mutou. What ever the hell it is, just don't come to classes when it is this bad."

It sounded nice enough, but for some reason it really, really rubbed him the wrong way and he found himself dearly wishing to smack her. Not that he would. He couldn't even remember the last time he'd hit someone.

He settled for hissing at her, "Leave me alone, Kimura, I've had a bad day."

"Wasn't that just what I said?" she hissed back, annoyed. But that was her default setting, it seemed.

With a huff, she turned away and pointedly ignored him, head bent over her own notes, and eyes, firmly locked on the slides.

He had at least one under his bed, one of the early drafts. The print out with Mara and Hikaru as twins had been lost for a month or so now. He wasn't certain of the number of printouts after that. But they would all be damning if Atem found them.

Why, why, why did he have to make the two lovers?

The plot hadn't improved that much, and the end was still the same.

How embarrassing. He just hoped Atem wouldn't go poking around too much, and that the cleaning spree Tanaka's elder sister had gone on in there a few weeks ago had gotten most of the other copies thrown away.

What if Atem read them and didn't say anything about them? He wasn't sure if that would be better or worse.

He glanced at the clock again. Five more minutes. He would never make it.

An almost whimper from Kimura made him still.

Tanaka's sister's cleaning had been like a hurricane. It was unlikely that the papers had escaped. At least that was what he told himself.

Four more minutes. He let his head drop to the desk with a sigh.

Kimura kicked him.

* * *

Yuugi was not in a much better mood by the time he arrived back at the dorm. He slammed the door shut and shut his eyes. All the thought-out, prepared snatches of speech he had daydreamed up in class fled his mind.

Atem was sitting on Yuugi's bed, shuffling a deck of cards. The now-solved rubix cube was sitting on the floor.

He looked as awkward as he sounded as he asked, "How was your day?"

"Too long," Yuugi dropped his backpack beside the door. He winced slightly. His laptop was open on his desk.

You've only been gone a few hours," Atem pointed out, "And your friend said you missed a class this morning."

"Days get really long really fast when you can't concentrate and the girl who sits next to you keeps telling you to stop fidgeting," Yuugi replied glumly, trying to figure out if anything Atem had said sounded like he might have read that story, "But Kimura's always like that. I hate Yoshikata's class."

Atem blinked.

Yuugi went to the desk and sure enough, the laptop was still on. And the story file was still open. But for his (albeit slight peace of mind) it was still minimized. Closing it quickly, he checked his e-mail for show.

"A comparative argument essay," Yuugi muttered, one foot kicking out a book form under the desk. Grabbing it, he opened it to the bookmark. "It's due next week."

"What's it on?"

"I'm not entirely sure," said Yuugi. He still had another three pages to write of it, but he had managed to exhaust the topic. He didn't want to start all over, but his topic was not very broad without getting extremely technical.

Well, he could always just bullshit his way through it. He'd discovered what a useful skill that was less than a week after starting college. Unfortunately, Yoshikata was not as tolerating of bullshit as some of his other teachers.

The other option was to translate all the technical details down to laymen's terms. However, that would easily be enough to write a book on.

"I have to get another three pages on this, and honestly, I was done two pages ago," he sighed.

"It seems as though your homework troubles haven't changed much," Atem observed, "I seem to remember us having this same conversation many times."

"Five years isn't enough time to change the fact that homework is evil, and teachers are sadistic," Yuugi quipped.

Atem only laughed. "I'm sure, Aibou."

Yuugi smiled, and closed the laptop. He still had a week before paper was due. Atem hadn't even been back a day.

Besides, there was Apep to deal with. Like a bucket of cold water had been dumped over him, his contentedness was washed away.

"I can work on homework later," he explained, even though Atem hadn't asked, "There are more important things."

He smiled at Atem.

Just because he had some unspeakable evil after him, didn't mean that he couldn't enjoy himself.

Atem cocked his head, waiting for Yuugi to continue.

"After all, it's been five years," he said, "We have a lot of catching up to do, right?"

He wondered if Atem would recognize that he was just trying to be brave. For some reason, he had a very bad feeling about everything that was going on. It was not like the standard "got to save the world again" feeling, either. It was more along the lines of a "make peace with your gods, because you might not live" feeling. It wasn't just that Apep had given him the creeps (Yami no Malik had given him the creeps), the man had honestly scared him.

And if that wasn't enough to convince him he was trouble, Atem's sudden, violent, reaction to him certainly was.

"Yeah," Atem said slowly, "I suppose we do."

Yuugi attempted a smile another.

Atem was looking at him strangely.

Yuugi suddenly felt his heart in his throat, lodging firmly, choking him. Atem was not completely unfamiliar with computers. The file had been open, not on the screen, but open.

Why in the world had he made those two lovers? Atem would recognize the inspiration of the plot within two pages, if not the first paragraph. It might have taken Jounochi or Honda longer to figure it out, but even they would know by half way through. But there were some phases; some ideas of the way things worked that only the he and his other half thought.

Easy, Yuugi, he thought to himself, Don't panic. You don't know he read that story. Calm down.

"Yuugi, are you alright?" Atem asked.

Yuugi beat back his panic again and said at a normal tone, "Of course I am. Why do you ask?"

Was it just his imagination, or did Atem look nervous?

"Maybe it's normal for you now, but you seem very... jumpy."

"I'm fine," Yuugi said, trying not say it too quickly.

Even if Atem had read the story he would understand that it had just been a therapeutic exercise. The characters Hikaru and Mara had become lovers because it fit the plot better. He had absolutely no reason to be worried.

And if he believed that, he had best watch out for any bridge salesmen.

Nope, telling himself that was not working.

Why?

That thought finally slowed his fast and frantic thoughts. Reaching out towards it, he continued to turn it over in his mind. He had no reason to worry, but he was. It was obviously a side effect of his dread over Apep.

He jumped when he felt Atem put an arm around his shoulders.

"There's clearly something wrong, Aibou," he said softly, in a kind and coaxing tone, "Please tell me what it is. I might not be able to help, but I certainly won't be able to if you don't tell me."

"It's just..." Yuugi cast around for something, "Everything that's been happening recently. I'm glad you're back, I really am, but everything's weird and it feels like my whole world is turning upside down and my thoughts are just going a mile a minute because I don't know what to think!"

No need to say anything about the story. That was most of the truth, and why would he admit to something Atem might well not know about?

Atem's other arm brought Yuugi into a hug, and Atem leaned down, resting his head on Yuugi's shoulder.

"You know that you can always talk to me?"

"Yes." _I would just really prefer not to talk to you about this._

Atem stayed a moment longer and Yuugi felt cheated when Atem broke the contact and sat back down on the bed across from Yuugi's chair.

He picked up the deck of Duel Monster cards and began to flick through them again.

"Your deck hasn't changed as much as I'd been expecting," Atem said, putting them back down.

"Not a lot of chance for it to have changed," Yuugi sighed. "The game has lost its popularity; the majority of the players are now shorter then me. "

He stood, kicking the chair back under the desk, and sat beside Atem.

"That's a shame," Atem said quietly, frowning as he looked down at the card on top of the deck.

"There's not much I can do about it," Yuugi said, "You can't play when you haven't got an opponent."

Atem turned the top card over. The Dark Magician.

"They'll come back," he said, his tone so sure that Yuugi had no doubt he believed it, "Eventually."

"Yeah." However as much as Yuugi believed it he couldn't help but wonder if it would take another reincarnation or so. "Eventually."

He stole a card from the deck as well, but didn't flip it over, vying instead to stare at the back of it and the design. The silence stretched between them broken only by the slow creaking of the old bed as it dipped further and further in the middle were they both sat, trying to cosign the weight on it to one place.

Atem stood.

Yuugi sat still, waiting for something else to happen. They weren't actually fighting anymore, but the air in the room felt almost heavy with their tense silence.

They had never had this kind of silence before. It always used to feel companionable, and now it just felt... tense. Yuugi had the sense that something important was going on, but he just couldn't see it, or understand what it was.

"So," he said, "That man's name was Apep?"

Atem's shoulder's tightened, and he turned around, "Be careful about that, Aibou. It's risky to speak a demon's name."

"It is?"

"He might come when he hears his name... or he can listen in. I honestly don't remember the legends that well."

Yuugi saw a rare flicker of self-dislike flicker across Atem's face.

"Don't worry about it, I'm sure that they wouldn't have every thing about his name anyway."

"That may be true, but I'd still rather not risk it."

Yuugi made a noncommittal noise and turned over the card still in his hands. Kuriboh. He smiled a little at the almost-harmless ball of fluff.

"So, what are we going to do?" he asked, putting Kuriboh back in the deck and standing to walk over next to Atem, "If what you said about him is true -- and I think it is, that man gave me the creeps -- something's going on. Most likely something big."

Atem shook his head with a wry smile, "It almost always is." His face fell back into a serious expression. "But I don't know what to do. I don't have any idea what's going on, or what he's planning, or why he's trying to recruit you..."

Yuugi thought he saw Atem shiver, but decided he must have imagined it, for Atem seemed his usual unshakable self.

Yuugi tried to remember what Apep had said to him in the dream, but the memory was distant, overshadowed by the return of Atem. "He said something about a coup."

"If he's trying to recruit you, he must need you. Or is just enjoying toying with us."

"Are you sure," Atem spoke suddenly urgent, "He said he was planning a coup?"

Yuugi thought, but the dream slipped through, an image remembered here, how his flesh had crawled there, and the way he had been greeted by Atem in the dream before waking. "No. I can't recall."

Atem did not relax, though his eyes softened. "Ah."

"I can only remember little bits and pieces. The only things I remember clearly are when he said he wanted my help, and... seeing you."

Atem looked away very suddenly. Yuugi gave him a curious look, but he said nothing.

"Whatever he's planning," Atem said firmly, squaring his shoulders and facing Yuugi again, "We will stop him."

He handed the Dark Magician card that was still in his hand back to Yuugi, "I know we will."

Yuugi took the card and gently put it back into the deck, "Yeah," he agreed with a smile.

"How have the others been?'

"Well, Jounochi is going to another college because Mai insisted-- Oh! Bakura called yesterday."

"Did he?" Atem asked a weary note entering his voice. "Which one?"

"The..." Yuugi searched for a good term, before coming blank. "The one who isn't always trying to steal the puzzle. He called because he found the ring."

"Charming," Atem muttered dryly.

"There's been no sign of the other Bakura so..."

The muffled snort from Atem confirmed that he wasn't convincing anyone.

"Anzu went to America." Yuugi's eyes flew wide as he realized that he had yet to tell any of his friends that Atem had returned, but he let himself relax. He could call them later. "She's dancing. Honda is working on cars and such. Kaiba is Kaiba, he hasn't changed. Mokuba's grown.

"No one's died." Yuugi finally said, trying to separate the important information for the trivial bits. He could tell the saga of Honda, Otogi, and Shizuka later or how Mokuba had gotten suspended and nearly expelled. They... they had time now, didn't they?

Atem sat down again, this time on their "table." He gestured for Yuugi to sit down next to him. Yuugi felt a brief flash of annoyance at being asked to sit down in his own home, but it was gone quickly as he sat beside him and Atem leaned closer.

"Tell me all of what's happened," Atem said, "We don't know anything about... him, so it's not as though we can do much else. I want to hear about our friends."

"Well," Yuugi fought down a gale of laughter, before continuing. "About a month after you left, Kaiba brought in Mokuba because it was a half-day at his school and the mansions security was on the fritz. He and Yonogi-sensei took and instant dislike to each other..."

YYY

The blood (or was it ichor?) was cold on his cheek.

"We may have a slight problem," Bakura hissed.

Ryou reigned back his urge to bite pout a sarcastic question, while staring at the mess of blood and other fluids around the room. "Did that guy say he was a general?"

"I think he did, yadonushi."

"We're screwed, aren't we?"

"I think we may be."

"What should we do now?"

"I think I have an idea."

Two hours later, when halfway across the globe Yuugi dreamed of Apep and the other half of his soul running towards him, hands resting the newly solved Puzzle, they boarded a plane. They had missed the biweekly flight direct flight to Japan by less then an hour; settling for a longer flight with a transfer. They paid through the nose (tapping a few accounts Ryou had not known he had; Bakura looked very smug), greased a few palms, and finally, ran like the devil himself was on their heels. The reality, Bakura assured him, was probably actually much worse.

* * *


	5. Stalking and Storytelling

Cowritten with the lovely UrpleSquirrel. You can also find it at her LJ ( htt p:// urple squirrel. li vejournal. com/).

* * *

Chapter Five: Stalking and Storytelling

* * *

"You yelled at the police." Atem was staring. 

Yuugi and Atem had been actively talking for hours, covering everything from Mokuba's near-expulsion from school to Mai and Jonouchi's kind-of sort-of engagement. Right now, Yuugi was telling the tale of his ill-fated designated driver experience.

Yuugi shifted uncomfortably, "Yes, I yelled at the nice policeman. I was in pain. I was getting a headache. And I wanted to go home."

"_You_ yelled at a _police officer_?" Atem repeated incredulously.

"Yes," Yuugi said again, "We covered this already. I was in pain. And exhausted. I wasn't thinking clearly."

"What happened then?" Atem asked, looking apprehensive.

"I tried to stand."

"And the ankle?"

"Yeah," Yuugi ran a hand though his hair, looking embarrassed, "I screamed. It went 'pop' again."

Atem winced in sympathy again. While the story was decidedly humorous, with drunks, mistaken identities, and the designated driver having a possibly ankle, it had happened to Yuugi.

"I think that's what convinced his partner to see what was going on."

"And what did the partner do?" Atem asked, with a feeling of half-amused foreboding.

"Kept us from getting arrested, mostly," Yuugi replied, "She was nice. Kind of like a typical grandmother in a thirty-year-old's body. Motimiya tried to flirt with her."

"Why?" Atem asked, "Didn't you say he's Sonoda's boyfriend?"

"Motimiya thinks flirting is a sport," Yuugi said dryly, "And the way he does it, it is."

Atem nodded. He had met one or two people like that.

"She scolded them about drinking, and for not calling someone else to get them when it was clear I shouldn't drive. I think she could tell I didn't need more stress, and that's why she didn't scold me at all," Yuugi explained, "She took me to the hospital, and had her partner take the others to the subway."

Atem only shook his head.

"I'll probably regret this, but... Where did they end up?" Atem asked with a little chuckle.

"Miraculously enough, they all ended up at Kaikassu's place. And this was before she'd moved out. Her parents were out of town, and given what I heard from Tanaka, I hope for their sake they never came back."

Atem actually laughed that time. Since it wasn't Yuugi who'd had a bunch of drunkards crash at his place, he could fully appreciate the humor, rather than feeling sympathetic.

"I ended up with a badly sprained ankle and couldn't go anywhere for almost a week. And Tanaka was all the while trying to get me to agree to go out clubbing again in one of _your _outfits."

"Mine? I recall you wearing them more than a few times." Atem arched an eyebrow imperiously.

"And who was it that put them on?" Yuugi traded back.

"They look good on you," Atem pointed out.

"They make me look like a gothic stripper," Yuugi deadpanned.

"They aren't all that bad!"

"No, just most of them."

Atem's protest died on the way to his mouth. Yuugi ignored it and went, "Yeah, so that's the reason I am never going to be a designated driver again."

"I would have picked a different way to get out of it, myself," Atem quipped.

"Yeah, well, you know how I love being unique!" Yuugi grinned falsely, with the result being he looked somewhat manic.

There was a comfortable silence, and then Atem said, "Gothic stripper? Really?"

"Yes. Really."

* * *

By the time they'd reached their stopover in Hong Kong, Ryou had determined that he was never, ever, no matter who or what was after them or how badly they needed to get somewhere fast, going to get on a plane with his other half ever again. Not even if he had sedatives to give him.

He would _walk_ from Egypt to Japan before he did this again.

It wasn't enough that they had not changed out their clothes and Bakura was still in his attire of Ancient Egypt, linen kilt and all, oh no. He was loud, having no concept that on a plane you whispered when the other passengers are trying to sleep. Knives are not brought on to planes either.

At least he had not been trying to flirt with the stewardesses, which was more then he could say for the drunk businessman across the aisle, whom he had been about ready to ask Bakura to play a shadow game with.

That had been before he had looked out the window and thought he had seen... something.

He had considered pointing it out to Bakura, but then realized that it was a reflection off the wing of the plane from the light. And if that hadn't been it, he did not want to know what it was. Starting a magical battle at an altitude of 30,000 feet was not a prospect which exactly thrilled him.

He was then bothered by the drunken businessman giving him an appraising look. What was it with him and attracting creepy people? Did he really look that vulnerable? He had asked Bakura, who had laughed so loudly that he woke the baby behind them, and then they spent the next hour listening to a screaming one-year-old.

Sometime in all of this, Ryou had finally managed to sleep. When he woke up, he found out (to his relief, though he wouldn't admit it) that the drunken businessman had been cowed into silence by the smirking Thief King. He didn't reprimand him, which was basically equivalent to a thank you.

Sadly, that had been the only high point of the trip, and the looks he had been getting from the other passengers were not something he was eager to further investigate. The rush to the subway station after disembarking had been haphazard, as had the ticket buying had been.

With a sigh, Ryou sat down on the train and prayed to any god that might happen to give a shit that things would calm down now.

* * *

It was an old campus, with many of the buildings built in the old Japanese style. Cherry trees dotted the grounds as did wisteria and neatly trimmed bushes.

The students were a varied lot, and despite their white hair, neither of the two stood out. A trio of students passing them wore very traditionally cut kimonos with the most garish colors possible and what looked to be a glow in the dark obi.

Another group was practicing Shakespeare in English with very poor accents, but very good costumes.

"Are you sure this is where we'll find him?" Bakura asked, looking around with a raised eyebrow.

"Don't you think this is his kind of place?" Ryou asked.

"No."

They walked by a young couple. Ryou saw the woman glance at Bakura, and heard her mutter to her companion, "Don't stare, Yoshiro, but you don't want to miss that."

Yoshiro didn't stare the first time he looked, but one glance had not been enough, and while the second wasn't long, it was enough for Ryou to flush. So much for not being conspicuous.

He should have remembered to have his other half change clothes, but in the panic that had followed the attack on them, all that mattered had been getting away from the site.

However, he didn't let the staring bother him overly much. They needed to find Yuugi.

Finding the picture took sometime, but despite being dated, he decided that it would be enough to find Yuugi. Even if there was another person wandering around with tri-colored spikes, it would be the other Yuugi, and so they would find him.

"Yeah, I know him," the "woman" who had introduced himself as Tanaka Kenichi said, "How old is this picture, anyway?" he asked curiously.

Ryou was slightly surprised to realize that she was actually a man. He didn't look it at all, but this college was a weird place. Finding Yuugi was more important at the moment.

"Um, six or seven years, I think," Ryou replied, "Do you know where we can find him?"

"Wow," Tanaka said, and gestured for the man, Sakuya Yoshiro, to look, "He wasn't kidding when he said he was a bully magnet! I've never seen someone who looks so wimpy before!"

"Do you know where we can find him?" Ryou repeated, a little louder.

"Oh, sure," said Tanaka, "What do you need him for?"

"I just need to talk to him," Ryou said at the same as his other half spoke.

"Doesn't matter, where is he?" Bakura demanded.

Tanaka stared at them, his eyes lingering on Bakura. "I don't think you need to know," he said cautiously.

Bakura's eyes narrowed dangerously.

Yoshiro fidgeted. "Dear, perhaps..." He whispered to him in an easily overheard hiss, "I think they're yakuza."

He stepped between them and Tanaka.

"Yoshiro!" he said testily, "Honestly! Do you really think _Mutou Yuugi_ is going to have ties to the yakuza? Other than the leather thing, he sticks to the straight and narrow so much it's boring."

"You don't believe that, and you aren't going to convince me of it, either!"

"Hmm... I'll have to work on that," Tanaka replied pensively. He turned back to them, "Look, I'll pass along a message or something if you want, but I don't really think I want to be telling two complete strangers where I live. People get into trouble like that."

"We need to know now," Bakura growled.

Ryou, used to his other side's easy alienation of everything sentient, except for those who were evil, just sighed.

"Especially when they're like that," he finished and flounced away, with Yoshiro almost tripping trying to keep up to his pace and watch them.

"Yoshiro, turn around before you hurt yourself!" He ordered, not even bothering to look at him.

Bakura smirked as he watched Yoshiro windmill as he turned back to apologize to him.

Ryou recognized the calculating look in the others eyes. "Now what?"

"We follow. Chances are within the next hour she's either going to go see Yuugi or at least call him."

"She's a man," Ryou sighed.

"Really?" Bakura blinked, looking at them walking away, "He hides it well."

"Let's go," he continued, unfazed.

Skulking and spying. He should have seen that coming.

"You do realize that this is probably a bad idea, right?" he asked his other half with a long-suffering sigh.

Bakura did not respond, only set off in an ambling pace after her.

It turned out to be a bad plan after all, because he did not do anything to get into contact with Yuugi for several hours. He and Yoshiro were on a date, which involved a dinner at an expensive restaurant (they nearly got arrested for loitering outside for so long, and Ryou was forced to admit that his other side was quite the smooth talker sometimes. He suspected magic had been involved) followed by visiting a karaoke bar (Bakura had advised Ryou against getting drunk, even if it would have made him feel better about the whole thing), and then a long walk around the campus (those two were so cute with each other it was sickening). Overall, it was almost two in the morning before he and Yoshiro parted company and he headed for home.

Which took another half hour due to the scenic route they took with many stolen kisses. Ryou was really wishing he had drunk the whiskey by the time they finally came to a dorm.

His Yami was insane. He had just learned to hide it better.

"No."

Bakura looked at him, with a cocked eyebrow, hands still tying knots.

"No way in hell."

"Hell is at our heels..."

"Absolutely not," Ryou proclaimed shrilly.

He still had yet to over come his fear of heights, and he didn't think that three in the morning sneaking up a dorm by way of climbing up who knew how many stories would be the way.

"Just no."

"Can't we take the stairs like civilized people?"

His Yami began to climb.

"Why do I put up with you?" he groaned, grabbing the rope and looking upward apprehensively.

"Because I make your life interesting," came the snickering response.

"That isn't necessarily a good thing!" Ryou called up after him, but it was ignored.

Well, it couldn't be worse then his first experience climbing. At least he wouldn't be blindfolded to keep from looking up a skirt he had no interest in anyway. And Honda wouldn't be grabbing his leg thinking it was a rope. Besides, Pegasus wouldn't be at the top...

"That settles it," he muttered as he followed the thief up the rope, "Insanity isn't hereditary, it's contagious."

* * *

Atem had not managed to sleep when Yuugi finally began to fall into a deep enough sleep that he felt he could move off of his sitting position beside him. Straightening the sheets around Yuugi, he felt contentment settle over him.

Though he could hardly dismiss Apep from his worries, it was quiet for the moment, with even the drag queen off on a date, leaving only the two of them and letting them talk. He caught up on what had happened when he had journeyed into the other world. And then Yuugi had jumped from topic to topic, halfway explaining why he had chosen this college, before jumping into how he had helped Anzu go to America.

As time had wore on, Yuugi had become less and less coherent, not finishing his sentences, and jumping from a topic randomly onto another, with a thought pattern not even he could follow.

It had been something of a game to maneuver Yuugi into lying down on the bed, without letting him know he was trying to get him to sleep.

Atem found himself yawning as well. It was strange, being able to feel tired again. Before, he'd always found something to amuse himself while Yuugi slept, and he'd never been aware of fatigue while in Tuath, the afterlife.

Yawning again, he looked over at the other bed, and then decided he didn't know Tanaka _quite_ well enough for that.

He started to lay down next to Yuugi, but he heard a strange noise outside that made him sit up again.

The cards beside the bed slid easily into his hands. He tensed further, when he heard footsteps in the hallway. As he heard to voice converse in soft murmurs at the door and a further rustling outside, he tugged the sheet over Yuugi's head, enough to hide him from a quick glance. It would not buy him much time if any, but it might be enough. If this wasn't a false alarm.

He relaxed as the door unlocked. It was only Tanaka then, probably muttering sweet nothings to his boyfriend.

However, if the boyfriend took it into his head to come in... Atem tugged the sheets over Yuugi's head further with a silent apology. Tanaka was enough to deal with as was.

The door opened and Tanaka came in, alone, humming something and wearing an altogether laughably dreamy look on his face.

Those two were _sickening_.

He blinked at Atem owlishly, "You're still up? And here I was trying to be courteous and quiet."

"It's just as well, Yuugi is asleep," Atem said, gently tugging the sheet back down, hoping Tanaka would not notice anything strange.

If he noticed, he said nothing, walking over to his bed and taking out his earrings, softly singing a song Atem did not recognize.

Atem yawned again. Tanaka didn't seem to be a threat, and so his fatigue was showing up again as he relaxed.

"Do you need a pillow or something?" Tanaka asked.

"I'm fine," Atem murmured lying back onto the bed.

He missed Tanaka's knowing smile.

Tanaka hummed to himself again.

"If you say so."

Atem did not deign to answer, and shifted around, trying to get comfortable.

However, such peace was not to last.

The noise from outside the window began again.

"Tanaka... you don't own a cat, do you?"

Tanaka only shook his head, still humming.

It was then Atem noticed that the deck had not even left his hand. He began to silently shift of the bed again, this time making no pains not to touch Yuugi.

"What are you doing?" Tanaka hissed, Atem's strange behavior penetrating his post-Yoshiro fog.

Atem put his finger to his lips.

Tanaka looked a little miffed. Atem ignored it, stepping quietly over to the window. It was pitch black outside, and he couldn't see anything that could possibly be the source of the noise.

Until a leering upside down face dropped downward.

He was halfway through drawing the card when he realized that it was not one of Apep's minions, but the old Bakura. He still drew the card however. So much for Ryou not seeing him.

He opened the window and scowled at Bakura, "Do I want to know why you're here?"

Tanaka jumped back to his feet, taking one of the shoes he had just removed and brandishing it at Bakura, "Did you follow me?!" he demanded.

"Yes," said another voice, from out of view, "And it was kind of embarrassing, too."

Bakura's arm slinked downwards to haul Ryou into the room.

"Hi, other Yuugi."

At least he had the decency to look embarrassed.

"Why are you here?" Atem demanded.

"Atem?" Yuugi asked blearily, now rising from the bed. "Ryou!"

"It's a very long story." Ryou waved to Yuugi sheepishly. "Suffice to say that, I think we are going to need your help."

"How did you even get here?" asked Yuugi, incredulous.

"A plane, two trains, and a lot of walking," Ryou rattled off, tiredly.

"Will someone please tell me what the hell is going on?" Tanaka cried.

"WE DON'T KNOW," four voices chorused with varying degrees of annoyance.

"Alright, we will do this logically. We will do this one at a time in order. However, most of all we will do this logically," Tanaka said, looking more like a man on the verge of a nervous breakdown than one who could act or think logically.

Yuugi just stared at his friend for a long moment before replying. "You think logic applies!?"

"No, but I can apply it!" Tanaka yelled, sounding like he'd just crossed the threshold into nervous breakdown.

Perhaps it was the general lack of sleep of many in the room, or the general anxiety of Apep and his creatures had caused, but at Tanaka's bold, and slightly arrogant reply, a great clamorous argument began. There was much arm waving and for a brief moment a touch of violence as the Thief King and the Pharaoh were in close proximity of each other for the first time in years. It was cut short when Yuugi shouted something accusatory to Atem that was lost in the din. It did not go unnoticed by the Thief King and he fell down laughing, until Tanaka cornered him to try to figure what the hell had happened to him at least. With a not so graceful distraction technique of a startled look behind Tanaka and at the second Tanaka's eyes involuntarily looked behind him shoving the still fuming Yuugi into his place, before continuing to accost the Pharaoh.

Then the shouting in Egyptian began.

Suddenly through the midst of the din, a commanding voice bellowed, "QUIET!"

Everyone froze, and turned slowly to the door. Yuugi recognized the man as his downstairs neighbor, Toruo Hiroki.

"Fucking hell! It is a downright indecent hour, and if you all don't shut the fuck up right now, I swear to God I will gut you and put your heads up on a pike as a warning to others! It's four-thirty in the goddamn morning, even the _thugs_ have gone to bed!"

Yuugi was the first to regain presence of mind enough to speak, "Ah… sorry, Toruo. "We'll be quieter."

"Good," Toruo said, and left.

There was a long silence.

"Well," Tanaka finally said, "That was random. But now that I've got everyone's attention, let's do this: You all sit down, and I'll make coffee. Then we'll talk like civilized people."

* * *

Yuugi settled down onto the couch, carefully, since the ratty old thing could cause injury if one just threw himself onto it. He blew on the coffee mug in his hands to cool it, and then cast a glance around the room. _Why_ did he feel as though he was staring into the lion's mouth?

Bakura and Atem were glaring at each other, again. Yuugi took a quick sip of coffee, and smiled at Ryou, who only could muster a lopsided one back.

Tanaka seemed to be rapidly losing patience, and about ready to yell again if the two said a single word.

"Alright, now... let's try to be logical about this," Tanaka said, "What happened first?"

"You gave me the puzzle," Yuugi said, as Ryou said, "I found the Ring."

"What are they, anyway?" Tanaka asked.

Ryou choked on his coffee, before glaring at Tanaka.

Bakura was fingering his deck suggestively, and Yuugi saw Atem's hand slip theirs.

It hadn't been a stupid question on Tanaka's part, but just bringing up the subject of the Items with Bakura around...

Yuugi sighed, and covered Atem's hand with his own. He shook his head slightly. Atem gave a pointed look in the direction of Bakura.

Tanaka looked at them nervously, "What? I really don't know! Obviously they're important, but..."

"Tanaka," Yuugi cut in, "I think you should just stop that train of thought right there."

Tanaka made a frustrated noise, "Well, at the very least, explain who they are!" He made a sweeping gesture at Ryou, Bakura, and Atem.

"Old friends... well, mostly," Yuugi said. "Um, Ryou is the one with really long hair--"

"Why everyone seems to have acquired an identical twin then!" Tanaka interrupted.

"Would you believe that he," Bakura said, pointing to Atem, "Is an illegitimate bastard of Yuugi's grandfather?"

Ryou stared flatly at Bakura.

"And who are you?" Tanaka further pried.

Bakura began to smirk.

"He's with me," Ryou said quickly. "He's... Bakura, I suppose. I'm Ryou."

"And you're related and into a cosplay cult with him?" Tanaka motioned to Atem.

"Cosplay cult?" Atem echoed, looking as if he wasn't sure whether the idea was funny or offensive.

"It makes considerably more sense than anything else I can think of!"

"You've got a good imagination, Tanaka, can't you think of something?" Yuugi quipped. Maybe it was a little bit mean, but he was confused and tired, and had been having, by all counts, one hell of a day.

"I'm thinking I'm gonna deck you in a minute if I don't get a good answer... or at least a plausible one," Tanaka amended, looking at them all warily again.

"I don't think there is a plausible one," Ryou said after contemplation.

Tanaka glared at him, before looking expectantly at Yuugi.

Yuugi could only swallow. He had told Anzu, Honda, and Jonouchi about Atem when he was still his other self. Of course, they had also seen the differences between them too well to deny.

He wondered sometimes what would have happened if Kaiba had decided that he really had lost it.

"Is there something that can at least imitate plausible?" Tanaka finally asked with a sigh.

"No," Yuugi said, "No, because the real answer involves magic, games, souls, and some time-traveling... Well, only sort of on the time-travel bit."

"Right," Tanaka said, "Uh-huh. Pull the other one."

Yuugi gave him a pointed look, "You know, considering what happened to you... yesterday morning, I'd think you'd be a bit more inclined to believe me."

"Yesterday morning?" asked Ryou sharply.

"A... gremlin attacked Tanaka."

"Some creature," Atem clarified, "It thought that he would make good food. Yuugi sent it back to its master with a message."

"His master?" Ryou asked slowly.

Atem locked eyes with Bakura.

Bakura could only shake his. "Surely," the thief said.

Atem cocked his head.

"No." Bakura said.

"For those of us without telepathic bonds formed in weird cosplay cults," Tanaka said, "Clue us in."

"The Serpent?" Atem asked, "He was the one who brought me back here. He was trying to convince Yuugi to join him."

Bakura shrugged, "He left the door open. I came through. Found my landlord. He wasn't pleased, but if he didn't want someone to go through, he should have locked it."

"Who?"

"He is a demon of Egypt," Atem explained, "I don't know how he's escaped. The Akeru should have held him..."

"The power of the gods has been weakening for a long time, pharaoh," Bakura said with a sneer (at their weakness or Atem's inability to notice it, Yuugi didn't know), "And the Akeru were never the strongest."

"Right. Cult. Okay, I can accept this," Tanaka said, but his tone said the exact opposite, "My roommate has a twin, a pair of freaky stalkers followed me home, and now there's a discussion about an Egyptian cult taking place in my living room. Somebody just needs to say 'Wake up, Kenichi, the Matrix has you,' and my surreal experience will be complete."

"Red pill or the blue pill?" Ryou deadpanned, holding out an aspirin and a red-colored painkiller.

Tanaka snorted, but snagged the aspirin, and took it. "Cults, right."

He glared at Ryou over the top of his mug, "And don't you dare say anything. I've already got enough of a headache. My roommate is in a cult that only twins can be in. Right."

Ryou held up his hands placating, while Bakura and Atem argued above them in harsh hisses.

Yuugi sighed. Tanaka might not be so far off the answer.

"Well," Yuugi said, putting down the coffee (he'd barely even touched it, and it was getting cold), "I suppose if you want the story in a way that makes sense, it starts with this," he touched the completed Puzzle, still hanging around his neck, "about fifteen years ago."

"My Grandpa gave it to me, and told me it was the called the Sennen Puzzle. He said it had never been solved, not since Ancient Egypt. I spent eight years working on it, and one day, I solved it. I got Atem, but I didn't know it for a while."

"You got Atem?" Tanaka repeated. "How?"

Yuugi did not feel like going back three thousand years to the rest of the story at four (already?) in the morning... "I wished for friends, and solved the Puzzle." He chewed his lip. He might have to though; some things were incompressible without the back-story. "Atem is..."

So many terms floated though his mind. My other self, my dark side, my past self, my other half... a pharaoh. The one who calls me Aibou.

Yuugi shrugged, "Sometimes I'm not even entirely sure. But he... he protected me. I needed it, back then. We spent two years together. He didn't remember who he was, or where he'd come from, or even his name. We had a lot of adventures, and we -- my friends and I -- helped him remember who he was, his name, what he'd done..."

"I was a pharaoh," Atem said, "Three thousand years ago. After I'd regained my memories, I had to move on to Tuath."

"Well then why are you back?" Tanaka asked.

"I have no idea."

Tanaka looked like he had swallowed a lemon. "So in other words, no one has any idea what's going on?"

"Yes," said Ryou finding much cheer in the irony, "That's what we've been trying to tell you."

Yuugi sighed.

"By the way… Tanaka, was it?" Ryou asked.

"Yes?" Tanaka replied.

"This is really lousy coffee."

"Bite me."


	6. Somewhere New

**Cowritten with the lovely UrpleSquirrel. You can also find it at her LJ ( htt p:// urple squirrel. li vejournal. com/). **

Sincerest apologies for the wait. Some of it was that real life got in the way, but most of it was that Urple and I are procrastinators.

* * *

**  
**Chapter Six: Somewhere New

* * *

Yuugi sighed morosely into his mug of coffee and his whitening knuckles. He relaxed his grip, but a moment later it was if nothing had changed, when Tanaka's protest rang across the room. Ryou's conciliatory tone and explanation of that they weren't insane grew more annoyed and abrupt. Yuugi had been quiet since Tanaka had declared that no one remembered their past lives, if such a thing even existed.

Tanaka was retreating into denial, the same way Yuugi's mother had the one aborted attempt he had made to explain the Puzzle and his other self to her. That little episode resulted with her nearly calling a psychologist for him and it had been only been Jounochi's quick lie that had stopped her. In the end, she had left on another of her research trips, and Yuugi had only talked to her over the phone since. This was starting to look the same.

Yuugi, in all honesty, couldn't blame him. Tanaka had never played Duel Monsters, and never felt the rush of otherness in the cards, or how well some would resonate. All he had that could even come close to explaining this to him, as Yuugi knew, was a half finished degree in Western classical mythology, with ran an utter counterpoint to this.

He did, however, seem to be easily finding a mundane, but not very plausible reason. He was convinced that they were a cult.

Yuugi wished that he had told Tanaka about magic, and his other self once it became clear they were friends. This violent, sudden crash course was too much.

Ryou caught his eye again, and offered a pained smile as Bakura baited Tanaka further. One moment he was agreeing with him and the next he was poking holes in Tanaka's arguments and defenses.

Tanaka was getting more and more agitated, and eyed his empty coffee mug like it was a bowl of spike punch. No real surprise, Yuugi figured, the whole thing was unbelievable by its very nature. Hell, he had trouble believing some of it and he'd lived through it.

"Bakura, I think you should just quit while you're ahead," Yuugi suggested, "He got the Ancient Egypt part, and that's a lot for four am."

Bakura looked at him, seemingly affronted by the suggestion that he should give up.

"I'm tired," Ryou added. "It's been way too long a day."

Beside him, Yuugi felt Atem nod, but Tanaka still looked defensive.

"I want to know," he began slowly, "What _really_ is going on here?"

Yuugi barely contained his sigh as they were off again. It had looked like that time he really would have gotten them all to sleep. He was tired, they were tired, and arguing until dawn would not help. Tanaka was not going to give any quarter in this mood, and Bakura hated to lose.

Really, was he the only one who could see this was going to end badly?

Yuugi made a mental note that he needed some sleep too; he was getting entirely too snappish.

"We've already told you," Bakura said, smirking, "It's not my fault you don't believe us."

"I would believe you, except for the fact that what you're telling me is _absolutely batshit insane_."

Yuugi sighed, and opened his mouth to talk again, when something in the center of the room caught his eye. He couldn't quite say what he had seen, but for some reason, the spot seemed different. The shadows cast seemed off, like a well-done painting that took no account of the sun's position.

Atem too saw his gaze, and followed it to the spot.

Ryou was the next to see it, and Bakura and Tanaka both fell silent as well, looking at the spot were the shadows were wrong.

"What is," Tanaka's voice cracked, "That?"

"Him."

Ryou asked, "Ap--"

"Yes," Bakura cut him off.

The shadows, now clearly distorted in the shape of a person, solidified and vanished, leaving behind the man from yesterday. He was smiling coldly and… or so it seemed… glowing faintly. The effect might have been angelic if he hadn't seemed to drop the temperature in the room by about ten degrees. Yuugi shuddered, but kept it small enough that he would not see.

Bakura bared his teeth, sinking into a stance with one hand creeping towards his kilt – where doubtless a knife was hidden – and the other he twisted, readying for magic. To his left, Ryou was less sure, sliding behind Bakura, eyes darting to the heavy bamboo umbrellas.

Yuugi concentrated on the others, not letting the sick feeling in his stomach get the better of him. They would fight, whatever this came to. This man would not gain any further control over any of them. He thought that even Atem would not let Bakura into his hands, as much as he personally detested him.

"Yuugi," said Apep, in a voice like oiled silk, "I've just heard about what happened yesterday, and I've come to make my apologies to you and your friend. I would have been here sooner, but he evaded me, and I've had other... distractions."

His dark eyes flickered toward Bakura, standing in a position from which he would be ready either to fight or run.

"I told that... thing to tell you that I won't join you," Yuugi said defensively, "And I haven't changed my mind. If you'll use things like that, you don't care who gets hurt."

"That isn't true," Apep replied smoothly, "But I can see why you might think that to be the case. You see, Yuugi, I have to take whatever help I can get, even though that means I have to employ some... less than savory people. I can't afford to lose any allies if I mean to take my revenge."

"Your revenge?" asked Yuugi, "Your revenge for _what?_"

Atem glared. Yuugi wondered if he knew what Apep was talking about, or if he was just glaring on principle.

Apep looked back at Atem, and let a smile curl on his face. "The story has also been made unrecognizable as well."

"Then I don't see why I should do anything for you," Yuugi replied.

Apep sighed and bowed his head slightly, before Yuugi could see what his first reaction truly was. "If that is what you truly wish, I would ask that you think it over further."

"You've given me no reason to trust you," Yuugi said.

"You do have a point," Apep smiled coldly again, "But I don't know how much I can tell you. As of yet, I have no real reason to trust you, either."

"But you want me on your side?" Yuugi crossed his arms, "That doesn't make any sense to me."

"I am very simple to understand, Yuugi," Apep said, "I do what I was made to do. I can do nothing else. The people I am fighting punished and imprisoned me for being what I was made to be. You have a highly developed sense of right and wrong, so tell me... is that fair?"

"You can fight to be more than what you were born to be though. You can change," Yuugi said. "There is a choice."

"It had been made by others for me," Apep snapped.

"There's always a choice," Ryou said. He stood his ground, as Apep looked at him, and then in turn looked at Bakura. "Always," Ryou said again, mostly to himself.

"You made it long ago," Atem said, finding his voice. "Knowingly. You will find no sympathy from us."

Yuugi nearly said that they could help him, help him make it right, but the words died in his throat. He knew that all Apep thought would make it right would be his revenge. But he still had to... "But if you want to change..." Yuugi said no more. If Apep wanted to, he would have to do the rest himself.

Apep threw back his head and laughed, bone-chillingly, "It seems I had the measure of you exactly. Such a kind-hearted boy. You think you can fix the whole world with nothing but your own two hands and optimism."

Tanaka, who had been utterly silent and still up to this point, watching the proceedings like a cornered mouse, nodded in agreement. Then he caught what he was doing, and shrank back further, almost melding with the wall.

Apep didn't even spare him a glance, "You can't, Yuugi, not on your own. But with help... you and I could change the world."

"Yuugi wouldn't like the changes _you_ would make!" Atem snapped, shifting so that he was standing slightly closer to Apep than Yuugi was. A protective gesture, and for some reason it pissed Yuugi off.

"And what changes would those be?" He found himself saying, curious just to see how different they were.

Apep smiled, while Atem made an incoherent noise.

Yuugi tried to bottle his anger down, force it away, but still got a vindicated feeling at Atem's reaction. It served him right. He could speak for himself.

"Together, we have the power to change the world," Apep began, "Curing world hunger, and world peace? Trifles. What really matters to you? We could make people think about others feelings, and let empathy, sensitivity, and sensibility reign. Yuugi, it would a golden age, the likes of which has never been seen... and will never end. It would be a utopia that would always stand."

Yuugi smiled, but it was a sad one. "No such thing." It was an impossibility. He reached out to squeeze Atem's shoulder. He couldn't even be at peace with his other self; there was no way that world could stay in such a perfect ideal.

"It's possible to bring back duel monsters," Apep said.

Yuugi started. Now _that_ was actually tempting, and judging by the confident look on Apep's face, he knew it too.

"Perhaps the world can't be made perfect for everybody," Apep continued, "But it can be made good for you, and the people you care about. It wouldn't be difficult at all to pull those strings."

Yuugi took a deep breath. His friends, his family, could be happy. They could reach their dreams. That would be... Wrong.

"It's not worth anything if it just gets handed to you on a silver platter," he said, "That isn't how it should be. You can't appreciate the good things in life unless you have to work for them."

"I won't lie to you, Yuugi. It will be hard. What I want is something that takes days to put into words. Revenge is at best, a simple term for it, but the shortest. The amount of effort, of energy and pain that it will likely cause us is worth it, but you will have to work for it."

"Then all the more reason you should not ask Yuugi to it," Atem yelled.

"But he is the only one who can," Apep argued simply.

"No."

"What?" asked Apep, his closing his eyes.

"No." Yuugi repeated.

"No what?" Apep said carefully.

"No, I won't join you!" Yuugi said fiercely, "I don't trust you, I don't believe that you'll do anything that will help me, and I don't want to be tied to you!"

Apep gave him a regretful look that somehow seemed more human than any other expression he had tried so far, "Are you sure?"

"Yes, I'm sure! I wouldn't have said it if I didn't mean it!" Yuugi growled.

"Then in that case," said Apep, his lips curling into a sneer, "I'll take back my gift, shall I?"

"Your gift?" asked Bakura keenly. "What was that?"

"Yuugi's dearest Atem."

"No." Yuugi breathed. "You can't!"

"Mine to give, mine to take," Apep hinted.

"I am no one's!" Atem protested.

"I was the one who brought you here, pharaoh. I gave you a chance that none of your kind has ever had, and like none will. You have returned to life, and now you go back to the afterlife."

"You, Snake of the Sky, have no control over that," Atem hissed.

"I brought you here. My realm borders the Tuath. _I can._"

"You won't!" Yuugi yelled, reaching out to take Atem's hand.

_I hope_, he added silently. He honestly didn't know what Apep was capable of, and he had brought Atem back to life so easily. But he couldn't... Not now that they were finally together again. They had fought, yes, but they needed to be together. They were two parts of a whole, he and Atem, and they wouldn't be separated again.

Not without a fight.

"It's too late for that," Apep said, "You should have joined me, Yuugi. Then you wouldn't have to go through this."

Around Apep, the shadows lengthened, and then darted away from him. They began to swirl and spiral around Atem's legs, and by extension, Yuugi's.

These were not the shadows of the Shadow Realm, in which Yuugi could find some comfort from he could always call a friend, one of his Duel Monsters to fight for him, but these were thin, see through things, that when overlapped and became darker and darker.

Atem noticed the difference quickly as well, and his hand gripped Yuugi's all the tighter.

"You won't take us," Atem said, softly, but with full warning. He straightened, and began to call their shadows and monsters to fight for them. Duel Monsters, the card game may not be played anymore, but the magic had held strong for thousands of years. What was five? They would come.

Apep's shadows pulled at Yuugi's fingers, trying to shake off his grip. He grabbed Atem's arm with his other hand. They wouldn't be beaten so easily! He would not let Atem go again.

Apep's voice rang out suddenly, but it sounded stretched, far-off. "No, I can't send you back to Tuath, can I?" he said, "You'll let them know what I'm up to, and it's still too early in the game for that."

"Game?" Atem growled, glaring.

"In fact," Apep said reflectively, looking around the room, apparently seeing the other people for the first time, "Any of you could be a risk I don't wish to take at this point." He smiled, terrifyingly, with a grin too large for any human face, "Yuugi, I won't separate you from your dear pharaoh."

In the corner, Tanaka winced almost loud enough to be heard.

"In fact," he continued cruelly, "I won't dare separate any of you." He smiled beatifically, and the shadows doubled, and then tripled in size, seizing the others.

Ryou was close, and other then Atem and Apep, the only one Yuugi could see in the room. He struggled, trying to fight his way free, and Yuugi lost sight of him slowly, as he struggled to Bakura. Tanaka's screams could be heard loudly, echoing, and Yuugi wondered what Toruo, from downstairs thought. Then he wondered, if they were still on the same plane as their dorm room.

Yuugi clung to Atem's hand, like a drowning rat to spar, willing himself not to let go. Who knew where he would end up if he did?

Tanaka wailed loudly again, and then was cut off, in mid-scream.

Yuugi tried to call out to his friend, but found that no sound was forthcoming. He was wrapped in black silence, and he couldn't even feel Atem's hand anymore, although he knew he hadn't let go. He could see nothing, hear nothing, feel nothing. He might have screamed, but it was impossible to tell what exactly was happening.

And then, with the suddenness of flicking on a light switch, his senses returned. He was still gripping Atem's hand, and he could hear his heart hammering in his ears. But what was he seeing? Where was this place?

It wasn't the shadow realm, because the sun sat low on the edge of the sky, lighting the strange landscape with a brilliant sunset. He looked over at Atem, hoping his friend had some answers to offer, but he looked just as confused as Yuugi.

Nearby, Ryou was scrambling to his feet, and offering a hand to Bakura, who didn't take it, and was instead staring up at the sky. His lips were drawn tight, into a bloodless line, his eyes narrowed, and glaring hatefully up.

In the sky was the sun, but looming just at the horizon was a great black snake. Its jaw was unhinged, and the mouth looming widely ready to swallow the sun whole, and blot out the light. It curled in wait, still, but for its eyes that roved the ground quickly, always snapped forward, towards the sun.

"What in the name of hell is that?" Ryou demanded shrilly.

"The Snake in the Sky," Bakura hissed.

"Apep," Atem named.

The eyes snapped to them, and for a second, Yuugi could seem the clearly, and shuddered. They were golden, but had no warmth to them; there was no shine, only a glassy gleam.

"Is he... He eats the sun." Ryou breathed out in wonder.

"He tries," Bakura said.

"Every day, but he is always stopped by the gods," Atem continued.

Yuugi blinked at them. He never thought he'd see the day when the two of them would be on the exact same wavelength.

He glanced around, "Hey... where's Tanaka?"

The other man was nowhere to be seen. Yuugi felt panic rising in his throat. Oh, gods, what if Tanaka had gotten hurt, because he was unlucky enough to be in the middle of this? What if he'd gotten left in that nothingness they had passed through?

Yuugi would never forgive himself if either had happened.

"He's probably..." Ryou trailed off, and then looked at Atem for help.

"It's possible that he might have been able to reject the magic to such an extent that he ended back up in the room," Atem offered. "He couldn't believe the idea, and if he had a touch of magic of his own, like Kaiba, he may have resisted being drawn into it."

"Kaiba was still put into a soul card though," Yuugi disagreed miserably.

"But Pegasus wanted him there, Apep may have dismissed him as unimportant, or was to busy fighting to put us in here, that he couldn't go after one lone person."

"How do you know that?" Yuugi demanded.

"He doesn't and we don't have anyway to know either way," interrupted Ryou.

"You should be more worried about yourself," Bakura said, glaring at the serpent in the sky, "If your friend is anywhere that's not here, he's doing better than we are."

Yuugi opened his mouth for another protest, but it died in his throat and he took a deep breath, "But... what exactly is this place?"

"It's the wastelands of the soul around Tuath. He --" Bakura gestured to the snake, "-- arrogantly calls it his realm, but he controls perhaps a third of its denizens."

"Wastelands?" Yuugi echoed.

"You don't honestly think every soul goes straight to Tuath? The people who know that they would be devoured by Ammit linger here, along with everything else that isn't pure or good enough to step into Tuath."

"Oh."

"How do you know?" asked Ryou, sounding slightly more cheerful.

Bakura was long silent, but then sighed, irritated, before he spoke, "Because I was here."

"That does not surprise me," Atem muttered.

"Atem!" Yuugi reprimanded. Bakura was trying to help, in his own way.

Bakura looked up at the sky, ignoring him. Yuugi looked up again, and then saw how close the sun was drawing to the gaping mouth of the snake.

"What happens now?" Ryou asked, shading his eyes.

"Watch."

The sun moved along the final stretch, faster here than in real life. In a minute, it passed through the final finger's breath of space, and then the snake lunged. The sun moved slightly, but then was caught in the serpent's jaws, fangs trapping it.

The snake began to move, slithering across the western sky, fighting to hold the still struggling sun. Its tail lashed, sending up a wave of sand, creating new dunes far off in the distance. The sun pulsed one final time.

The snake swallowed. In one convulsing gesture, the world went black.

Yuugi gasped. The legend may have gone that he always tried and never succeeded, but was it possible that this time...?

Before he could even finish the thought, light appeared again. The snake was being cut apart by something that was only a vague shape against the glare of the sun. Faster than Yuugi's eyes could follow, the great serpent's body was in pieces scattered across the landscape.

"He'll be back tomorrow," Bakura muttered, "He always is."

"What would happen if he did swallow the sun, and destroy him?"

"It would mean he's winning," Atem said heavily.

"A long night," Bakura contradicted, "If they fight too long, neither winning, they can start storms of sand and water."

"Are they bad?" Ryou asked.

"Very." Bakura smirked. "If you're not careful, you can be buried and drowned in minutes."

"Lovely," Ryou said bitterly.

"Can we summon here?" Atem asked, addressing the air next to Bakura, looking anywhere but him.

"No."

"You're actually going to have to rely on yourself, rather then your servants here," Bakura added.

Atem glared, and did not answer.

Ryou rolled his eyes. "What about food, oh wise one? Do we need to eat here?"

"Yes, and others who feast on flesh do too."

Both Yuugi and Ryou continued to question Bakura, as Atem threw in a few questions reluctantly. Bakura took a gleeful, morbid delight in giving the most negative and worst answer he could, and they discovered just how deep they were in. The sun finally finished setting, but the dusk it left was more naturally, and the stars had begun to appear.

"We're stuck here, aren't we?" Yuugi finally asked, interrupting Ryou. "Sorry, but we are, aren't we?"

"We can't go back," Ryou said instantly. "We need a hole, an opportunity, like you said."

"He said," Atem said pensively, "that his realm borders Tuath. Could we reach it from here?"

"Are you actually stupid enough to think that he would let us?" Bakura asked, "He's afraid that we'll run and tell the gods his little secret."

"Not to mention the gods would strike you down as soon as they laid eyes on you."

"They could try," Bakura smirked, "Indeed, they have tried."

"Why am I not surprised?" Ryou muttered.

"How did you get out?" Yuugi asked.

"He got careless." Bakura glared, daring them to say anything more about his implied weakness.

"It's very unlikely that the snake will be so again," Atem said.

"You have an idea?" Yuugi recognized the look Atem had. When they played a game, he usually saw it earlier on. It meant that he had seen something he could use.

"Not much. But if we could somehow create a distraction..."

"With what?" Bakura said.

Atem shook his head slightly, while Yuugi thought.

"We could attack him head on," Ryou suggested.

"And we could be devoured. Just because we could do something doesn't mean we should."

Ryou looked at Bakura pointedly.

"Right," Yuugi sighed, "Any other ideas?"

A chorus of overpowering silence answered him. His shoulders slumped a little.

"Wonderful," he muttered.

* * *

Please review! 


	7. In the Shadow

Cowritten with the lovely UrpleSquirrel. You can also find it at her LJ ( htt p:// urple squirrel. li vejournal. com/).

* * *

Chapter Seven: In the Shadow

* * *

Ryou had been the first to fall asleep, muttering something incoherent about having not rested since he found the Ring. Somehow, Ryou had managed to tune out Bakura, and use part of his red coat-like robe as pillow, as well as his own long braid.

Just looking the sleeping man was enough to send Yuugi into a fit yawns. He had slept a little earlier, before Bakura and Ryou had climbed up the side of building, but he needed more rest. He was ready to drop from exhaustion, but there was no obvious place to sleep. He might have copied Ryou's example, but somehow he doubted that Bakura would react well to him taking the other side. He briefly debated borrowing one of Atem's thighs, but nixed the idea quickly.

Bakura and Atem were still arguing, though it was decidedly less passionate then before, with both of them sitting across from each other. Yuugi'd lost track of the conversation a while ago, too tired to care, but not tired enough to ignore it.

It had something to do about power and leading the group, originally. However, they kept skipping from topic to topic, and imagined and real slights. Yuugi hoped that it was some strange way to show budding trust, or at least clear the air between them. He also wished that they had chosen a more opportune time for it. Really, Apep could find them at any point.

As the argument grew more distant, Yuugi's head lolled, and his eyes drooped. He was so tired. At little longer he would be able to get some sleep now. Or maybe he would wake up to find it was all a dream. The Apep part, not Atem coming back. He wasn't sure he _wanted_ to wake up if Atem wasn't there. It was nice to have him back, like a missing piece of his soul had come back. It made sense, as Atem _was_ a miss—

"Yuugi, wake up"

Yuugi blinked several times, registering Atem's hand on his shoulder.

Had he actually fallen asleep? He didn't really feel any more rested. He stifled a yawn and looked around bleary-eyed.

"What?" he asked through a yawn.

"Someone's coming," Bakura answered, "Apep's men or not, we don't want to meet any of them right now. You three don't have weapons, and I don't have the time to be defending you."

A weapon would be rather a moot point for him, Yuugi thought, accepting Atem's hand and getting to his feet. The most he knew about using knives or swords was "don't hold the sharp end."

Yuugi looked around warily, as Atem led him through the dark. A bobbing speck of light in the distance was enough incentive. He tripped several times, stumbling on sand, and Atem hauled him up bodily.

Bakura led them, despite any protests Atem had made earlier, they followed. The pace he set was hard, and Yuugi was glad for his white hair, which he could make out faintly.

Yuugi began to pant soon. A stitch in his stomach soon made itself known painfully. Atem, began slowing slightly, but Bakura did not, and they had to run to catch up. Ryou trudged along steadily.

It would have made things easier if he had known what it was that they were running from. Imagined terrors were always much worse than the actual reality.

Just as he was beginning to wonder if they would ever slow down, Bakura came to a sudden halt. Yuugi stopped gratefully, trying his best not to pant.

"We can stop here," Bakura said, "Nothing will be here until noon. Khab owes me, so he won't attack."

"Khab?" Yuugi echoed. Atem did the same, but in a different tone.

"What, you don't think any spirit here uses his original name, do you?" Bakura scoffed, "Khab."

"What does --?" Yuugi started to ask.

"Hippopotamus," Ryou answered.

"Oh."

"Learning, are we?" asked Bakura absently, as he checked over his shoulder, despite his confidence in this 'Khab.'

"Yes," Ryou answered tiredly, collapsing. "Yeah. Does anyone have water, or any food or drink for that matter?"

"No," Yuugi said dispiritedly. "I had candy in my pocket, but I ate that after class."

"Well, damn." Ryou bit a nail, before venturing, "Would Khab have any food he would let us have?"

"More importantly," Atem added, "Who is Khab?"

Bakura snorted, "Ha! You're funny, landlord. And to answer your question, Pharaoh, Khab is a spirit here. One of the oldest, I believe. He would rather be left alone, but he can and often does fight like a demon."

"I see. Do I want to know why he owes you?"

"No."

"I do," Yuugi cut in nervously, "Then we'll know when the debt runs out."

Bakura raised an eyebrow at him, "If that were a risk, do you think I would be here? I'm not actually reckless, you know."

"No, you're just a madman," Ryou murmured.

"Would the debt include anything for water?" Yuugi pressed. He did not like how raspy his voice sounded.

"No," Bakura said flatly.

"We should get some rest while we can," Ryou suggested, getting up pulling Bakura a little further from Atem and Yuugi.

"That would be wise," Atem allowed.

"One of us should keep watch," Bakura said, "Most spirits aren't stupid enough to try starting a fight in Khab's territory while he's here, but something acting on direct orders from him - " he gestured upward, " - would in a heartbeat, and I can't guarantee that Khab thinks his debt to me extends far enough to save all of us."

"I'll take first," Ryou volunteered. "I had a bit of a nap earlier. I'll be fine for a few hours."

Yuugi nodded. He could accept that, and he _really_ needed to sleep. He flopped down onto the ground with a relieved sigh, scooping up sandy grit to from a mound --a rough pillow.

He could hear Bakura arguing about it for some reason, probably because he wasn't used to trusting anyone, but it quickly faded into white noise. He'd had no idea he could even _be_ so tired. It was considerably worse than the last time he'd pulled an all-nighter before exams.

Atem settled down next to him, apparently content to let the other two argue it out themselves. He wrapped an arm around Yuugi's shoulders. Yuugi stiffened for a moment, but relaxed into the embrace. It was cold out here, but Atem was warm.

He was asleep before he heard the end of the watch argument.

* * *

Yuugi was rudely awakened by a heavy tap to his side. In a dim pre-dawn, Bakura stood over him, scowling. He stared up uncomprehendingly, rubbing sand off a cheek.

"It's your watch," Bakura said roughly.

"Oh."

Atem had shifted away at some point, and Yuugi was chilly again. He rubbed his palms over his arms, trying to warm up.

Bakura waited until he stood, before laying down himself, a ways away from Atem.

Yuugi looked around, unable to see further than a rock a few paces away. A far off yowl made him jump. "What do I do if I do see something?"

"Scream."

"Thanks," Yuugi muttered. "...What was that?"

Bakura sighed. "A fight. They've been at for a little under an hour. I think it's Khab and a water-stalker. They're fair ways off."

"Okay." Another faint noise, one that Yuugi couldn't identify. "What if they get closer?"

"We'll know. Now let me sleep."

"Okay."

"Shut up."

Yuugi nodded, keeping his apology. He began to pace around camp, finding a rough path of footsteps that Bakura had made. He followed it carefully keeping track of where he was. He wanted to keep walking to keep awake, but not get lost.

It was quiet here, quieter then anywhere Yuugi had ever been, but for the soul room. There was no white noise of cars or people. Only the four of them, the wind, and the fighters in distance. At every cry, Yuugi jumped, wishing that he at least had a stick. The stone he held wouldn't do much, and he was uncertain of his aim.

The sun rose, and while the light comforted him, Yuugi realized that he had no idea what to look for. Figures in the distances, that much was obvious, but what about something sneaking up on them?

He looked up and bit back a small squeak. He had forgotten about the Serpent in the Sky, and Apep was still as terrible to behold as last night. The great eyes still swept the landscape, and he wondered if they saw anything at all, or just watched the sun floating along its course.

The serpent's head was at the opposite end of the sky from the sun, watching and waiting, and Yuugi suddenly felt a small twinge of sorrow for Apep. Evil incarnate he may be, but he couldn't do anything else, and he couldn't change. That seemed somehow unfair, but Apep was out to kill them or worse. Yuugi's attack of pity did not last long.

He watched the huge body move across the sky as the snake changed positions, his head moving to the other side of the river.

A noise from behind him made Yuugi jump. He turned around, thinking of monsters and demons that might have approached during his distraction, but only saw vague shapes in the distance, kicking up sand as they fought.

He squinted, but saw only shadowed figures in the sand. He wasn't sure of size, and hoped that his rough estimate was wrong.

A rustle of cloth and leather, Yuugi at least recognized that sound, having heard his own clothes make it so many times before.

"Atem?" he asked softly.

Atem turned over and sat up, shaking sand out of his hair. "Yeah."

Yuugi smiled. "You startled me. There's someone fighting down there."

Atem looked at him, blinking still. "Fighting?"

"Yeah, Bakura said it was Khab and a water-stalker, whatever that means. You can't really see them, but they have been at it for a while. What would happen if the water-stalker won?"

"I don't know. This is a strange land to me."

Yuugi nodded. "I just wonder if that would mean it would attack us next. The other one doesn't owe Bakura."

"The things that live here are demons and scoundrels," Atem murmured, "I'm amazed he can even trust _one_ of them."

Yuugi pursed his lips. Though Atem was probably completely right, somehow the way he said it didn't seem fair.

"What are you thinking, Aibou?" Atem asked softly, looking at Yuugi.

"Ask me what I'm _not_ thinking," Yuugi replied, "The answer will be shorter."

Atem gave a halfhearted chuckle, but sobered quickly, "I don't like this place. I don't know anything about it." He flicked a pebble and watched it skitter away. "I don't trust Bakura to not use us as bargaining chips."

"Bakura is the only who knows anything about here. We're going to have to trust him. I know Ryou won't leave him, and I don't fancy the idea of us splitting up either."

"Do you trust him?"

Yuugi shrugged. Bakura had been trying to take the Puzzle and Atem for him from the outset. There was something to be said about the consistency of that. Also... Bakura did have reasons, in a way. He had a motive --even if it was revenge-- Yuugi understood.

Atem sighed. "Yuugi..."

"I do, to point at least."

"What has he done that makes you trust him?"

"They came to us for help," Yuugi said. "Both of them. We can't turn them away."

"And what about when he turns on us? He's never really helped us before, Yuugi. It's always been part of some greater plan."

"So? Jounochi and I weren't always friends."

"That's different."

"How?" Yuugi pressed.

"Jounochi was a good person who acted badly. Bakura is..." Atem paused, looking for words, but failed, and concluded with, "Not a good person."

"I... think I understand why he does the things he does," Yuugi said, picking some sand out from under his fingernail, "For now, at least, I trust him."

Atem snorted, and looked away so dismissively that Yuugi suddenly wanted to punch him.

"At the very least," Yuugi continued, keeping his voice steady with a great amount of effort, "I trust him to do certain things at certain times. And I trust him more than I trust that."

He pointed to the great twining serpent above them.

Atem looked back to him, and something that could have been annoyance relaxed, "All right. That I can agree with. But I'll sleep easier when I don't have to depend on the information he gives me to keep us safe."

"I don't believe he would lie to us now. There's no merit for him to keep us in the dark. The more we know, the better allies we are. He doesn't stand to gain anything from lying to us."

"Freedom, life, a pardon by the most powerful demon in existence... Yes, of course, nothing to gain."

"That was rude."

"It's also true."

Yuugi gritted his teeth and bit back the first words that came to his mind, forcing back anger. He was happy that Atem was back, he really was. It was just did he have to be so...

Atem noticed. "I didn't quite mean--"

"Yes, you did!" Yuugi interrupted. "You meant every word. People can change in five years. They can change in one."

I..." Atem stared at him, then cocked his head, and looked into Yuugi's eyes. "What's come over you?"

It probably a good thing that there were no walls around; Yuugi had the great urge to beat his head on one, as he broke eye contact. "Five years... Don't you think _something_ could have changed?"

"He had three thousand," Atem pointed out.

"In a hunk of gold with no contact to the outside world. That's enough to make anyone slightly insane. Now he's had five years to think." Yuugi continued. "Five years, which while admittedly isn't the same as home, is still a sight better then the Ring. He's had time to recover, heal even."

"Heal from what?" Atem asked. "He was insane in Egypt too."

"Are you just deliberately missing the point of what I'm saying?" Yuugi demanded, "I'm not saying he's alright now. If I was, I'd need to get my head examined, but I am saying that he basically spent those three thousand years unable to change. But not the last five. And he doesn't have all those constant reminders of his pain, so he's probably different now. Five years is a long time when you're actually living it, not waiting."

Atem opened his mouth to respond, but shut it suddenly. He gave Yuugi a long, scrutinizing look.

"Are you even talking about Bakura now?" he asked slowly.

Yuugi was taken aback, "What?"

"You aren't talking about how Bakura's changed. He hasn't changed."

"Five years change anyone!"

"Like you?"

Yuugi blinked. "I, well... yes, of course. I'm in college now."

"What else has changed then?" Atem asked, taking Yuugi's hand. "We've talked about what's happened to everyone but you. What's dueling been like?"

Yuugi shook his head. "No, we haven't talked about what's happened to everyone. I haven't had time to tell you half of it. Kaiba for one, he hadn't played Duel Monsters since... About eight months after the duel between us, his company released a virtually reality game. It's popular. I haven't dueled in an age."

"What's the game like?"

"Boring." Yuugi said instantly. "Nothing remotely resembles duel monsters. The game involves lots of mythologies for names, but he's purposefully left anything Egyptian out. He's even replaced the card locket he had."

"It won't be much of challenge to win. He needs time to get back into the game," Atem sighed.

Yuugi snorted. "I doubt he would accept. I've tried. Unless you plan take Ap-- him up on his offer, I don't think Kaiba's ever going to duel again."

"He made you that offer, not me. And you wouldn't have accepted it."

There was something odd in his tone as he said it, as though he wasn't actually sure of it, and was saying so to confirm it. Yuugi felt the irritation bubbling up inside him again.

"Of course I wouldn't have! What kind of person do you think I am?"

"I know, I was just thinking... even _I_ found that tempting."

"So you're saying if it was tempting for you, it must have been irresistible for me?"

"No!"

"Funny, that's what it sounded like to me."

"Yuugi, that wasn't what..." Atem let out a hiss of breath and slumped. "What I mean, is that I thought that you loved playing Duel Monsters--"

"Enough to practically sell my soul?" Yuugi yelled. "Are you mad? Do you even know--"

"And," asked a very cranky voice from behind both of them, "Do you know how much sleep we've gotten?"

Bakura was looking distinctly not amused. Ryou was faking sleep, but flushed when Yuugi caught his eyes open.

"Don't mind us," Bakura continued, "Go ahead and bring everyone with ears down on us."

"I didn't... Sorry," Yuugi said.

"You didn't think," snapped Bakura. "Go ahead though. I was starting to enjoy it. You were at selling souls for a game, and question his sanity, finally."

Yuugi glared at Bakura. Why the hell was he butting into this? Sure, being too loud and attracting something that might attack wasn't a good plan, but he had no right to talk about the argument itself! It was personal.

"It's absolutely none of your business, thief," Atem growled, "Don't talk about things you don't understand."

Yuugi changed his glare from Bakura to Atem. They'd seemed to tone down the animosity last night, but it looked like it was back in full force after a rest. Or was this simply Atem taking out his frustration on a target he felt no emotional obligation to?

Had Bakura even heard any of their argument about him? He would probably have taken all the "untrustworthy" comments from Atem as compliments.

"Things I don't understand?" Bakura laughed mockingly, "Oh, I have a feeling I understand what's going on much better than either of you do."

"I doubt that," Atem said.

Ryou stood, brushing off sand. "Well, now that we're all up," he said too cheerfully, "How about we get some water?"

Bakura gave him a dark look, but he continued to smile. "I'm thirsty. Aren't you thirsty?"

Yuugi tried to smile back. It was pained.

"Look," Ryou said flatly, dropping all pretenses, "I'm thirsty, I'm hungry. Neither of those problems are going to get solved with us fighting, unless we turn to cannibalism. I would suggest we start moving downhill until we find water. I want to keep moving. And I do_not_ want to be caught be him." He jabbed a finger at the sky, and the floating snake.

"He's showing sense," Bakura agreed, "We can get to the river in a few hours. There's game there too." He pushed roughly by Atem, jarring his shoulder as he passed, and Ryou followed, going around the pharaoh with a quick, apologetic look.

Yuugi looked around, feeling like there was something they ought to be picking up, but they had no bags, no supplies, nothing but the clothes on their back. Honestly, he was lucky he still had his shoes, since he hadn't bothered to take them off when coming home... yesterday? Two days ago? The only evidence of their camp were a few imprints in the sand, and a pile of stones he'd collected. It was almost like they had never been there. And soon enough, the wind that was already picking up would show just that. Grains of sand were already blowing across the ground, changing shapes and patterns. Maybe it would even be enough to buy them breathing space for the length of the day, but Yuugi doubted it.

He ran to catch up.

* * *


End file.
